Second Chance
by GabrielaHP
Summary: Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything changed, including himself and a certain bookworm.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Second Chance

Rating: T for now, though that may change in the future

Summary: Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!

Author's Note: This first chapter is just the introduction to the story and so is quite short…future chapters will definitely be longer!

Somehow when Sirius Black found himself standing outside the haunting black veil, he knew that nothing was the same as when he had gone in. He couldn't entirely explain the feeling of complete panic, yet strangely at the same time remarkable joy, he had upon realizing where he was. Down in the depths of the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Mysteries, nothing felt the same as when he went in, and it wasn't just that he was no longer surrounded by his godson, Harry's friends, and the Order battling the Death Eaters. There was an unexplainable air of difference that even he felt so far removed from the rest of the wizarding world. He inexplicably knew that time had passed and with it had come some sort of change. He looked around his black surroundings, at the stone tiers, the veil still fluttering innocently and almost invitingly to the unsuspecting, and the otherwise empty room. He needed to get out.

Before leaving what had been his temporary tomb, he sent out his patronus to alert Remus that his old friend was back and would be finding him shortly. Before making the venture through the Ministry of Magic, he morphed into Padfoot (it felt good to do that after what felt like so long) and padded quickly up to the main level, skirting the walls of the lobby, hoping not to catch attention. He was almost even with the golden forms of the fountain when he noticed the looks of the wizards and witches around him. A gray-haired witch with spectacles was rapidly poking the arm of the old wizard next to her, who was just finishing a memo and sent it zooming through the air. Turning with an annoyed look at the woman, he froze upon laying eyes on Sirius.

He wished he could use his paw to smooth the hair on the top of his head. He thought he couldn't look that bad - definitely not as grimy as he had looked back when he had been scrounging for rats to eat. He was just about to continue on his path through the lobby when he heard something that made him stop mid-step.

"He was an animagus – it could be him." A middle-aged wizard dressed in deep purple robes murmured to the witch standing beside him. At his words, her face turned to shock as she eyed the black dog standing in the middle of the Ministry.

"Kentley, are you sure he was described as being that big? It looks like the Grim!" Her expression turned slightly fearful and Sirius resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes.

"I'd bet all the galleons I have in Gringott's that it's Sirius Black! And everyone knows he disappeared here within the Ministry itself!"

Sirius couldn't help his eyes growing large and developing the stance of a dog that has suddenly been cornered. He knew he might run into some trouble since he was pretty sure Fudge didn't allow dogs to go gallivanting through his Ministry, but hadn't expected word to be out that he was an illegal animagus, let alone that his animagus form was a large black dog. Although already shocked at what he was hearing and the possibility of being found out and sent back to Azkaban, at the woman's next words, he knew if he were in his human form his face would have drained of all color.

"But that was seven years ago!"

Seven years? He had been missing for seven years? What had happened in that time? Where was the wizarding world on the war against Voldemort? Had Dumbledore helped Harry with his connection to Voldemort? How old was Harry at this point? He had been 15 when he'd gone into the veil…which meant that he was 22 now. A lump rose in his throat, not wanting the thoughts that pervaded his mind to be a legitimate concern. Had Harry lived to be 22 years old now or had…? Not giving in to the fear quickly spreading through him with that thought, after quick surveillance of the lobby he began to run directly through the crowd of witches and wizards, bounding past the Ministry employees and visitors who were too stunned to even try to stop him. He didn't have time to enjoy the fresh air upon leaving the building but instead kept running until the businesses and stone streets made way to trees and gravel road. Changing to his human form, he plopped down, his body heaving with deep breaths and mind racing. He had to get to Harry but had absolutely no idea where to find him. He was surprised Moony hadn't sent his patronus back – he had to know it was Sirius. Maybe he was taking time to alert the other Order members of his return. After seven years, they had to have assumed he wasn't coming back. So where would everyone be now? If the Order was still active, he had to think that Grimmauld Place would have continued to serve as headquarters since it was passed to Harry upon his...his what? His passing? He supposed that's how they saw it. Sirius almost hoped that his old home wasn't headquarters anymore and that Harry had been free to burn the place down, or at least vacate it. It was too dark and morose in that house for Harry or his friends. Again, that was assuming that in seven years things hadn't changed, the Order was still intact and Harry was still – Sirius swallowed another large lump in his throat – alive. The chance of things being the exact same after 7 years, however, was an improbability Sirius had to contend with. If word was out in the wizarding world that Sirius Black had been an animagus, he'd have to be extremely cautious from now on. He could no longer trot along as a canine, safe to assume that no one would identify him. "Well," he dryly said out loud to no one, "You've got to give me credit – 20 some years without anyone finding out."

Wisps of dust rose at his feet as he paced to and fro, working to wrap his mind around all he had learned in the past hour. The only place he could be sure to encounter people who knew he was innocent would be at Hogwarts. There were at least three people there who would give him safe haven and should be able to provide him some answers – Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape at least. Dumbledore almost assuredly would know where Harry was, as well as the whereabouts of Remus, Hermione, Ron, and the rest of the Order.

Nodding his head resolutely to himself, Sirius stood, transformed to Padfoot, and set out for Hogwarts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Second Chance

**Rating:** T for now, though that may change in the future

**Summary:** Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!

Author's Note: I can't promise I will always update this quickly, but here's the next installation. Reviews are always welcome!

As Sirius approached Hogwarts entrance gate, he could feel the magic radiating from the perimeter of the school grounds; the feeling enveloped him like a hug from the life he had been away from. Hogwarts had always been home to him. Only Hogwarts, out of all the other places he had lived – Grimmauld Place, James's parents' house, his flat outside Surrey, even Godric's Hollow for a brief time – had ever felt like coming home from the first time he was there.

Slipping over the invisible magical boundary for the first time in 8 years was like Madame Pomfrey's soothing salve on a wound. Letting out a quiet "chuff," Sirius quickly slinked over to the trees at the edge of the school grounds. He kept to the forest; his black fur against the shadows of the towering trees making him invisible to anyone that would happen to be looking his way. Up ahead he could see Hagrid's hut. For a moment he contemplated showing up at his back door but thought better of it. Hagrid didn't know he was innocent and was a bit…er, overprotective of Harry, and Sirius didn't want to risk dying for real this time before getting to someone who knew of his innocence. "Bloody hell. How am I supposed to get into Hogwarts with no one seeing me, let alone get up to Dumbledore's office? The first hopefully wouldn't be too hard if he found a quiet moment to sneak into the castle and hide out inside somewhere until curfew, when the students would head to their common rooms. Night would be his best time, but he'd still have to be on the lookout for prefects monitoring the halls for late-night snoggers in broom closets. He let out a chuff at the number of times one of the Marauders themselves had been caught with one witch or another in the school's various broom closets, or empty classrooms, or one of the many towers (the Astronomy tower had proved to Sirius more than once to be an especially romantic spot). Well, he supposed it wasn't all the Marauders so much as him and James. Remus had always been the most studious of the four, and Sirius always thought that his lycanthropy made him feel like he had to behave all the other days of the month. And Peter…Sirius unconsciously let out a growl at the thought of the traitor. His anger at Peter would stay with him forever, as would his anger at himself. He should have recognized Peter for the kind of person he was! He should've seen that even then Peter was hungry for power and those who had it, at that time being him and James. He hated Peter more than he hated Snape, which was definitely saying something. At least with Snape you knew what to expect right from the start. He was a slimy git who was as dark as the black robes he wore all the time. You knew to be suspicious and he didn't try to persuade you otherwise. Peter, on the other hand, sneakily attacked from the back, and it was especially deceitful because he was the one none of them had ever expected. Sirius had thought that Remus at least had the brains and the guts to pull off something like that. And Peter had known that he would be able to do it because they underestimated him. He remembered seeing the house in Godric's Hollow when he flew in on his motorcycle and his instantaneous consuming anger. Only two things had mattered in that moment: The fact that Harry was still alive and finding Peter.

The sound of students yelling and laughing brought Sirius out of his reverie. There were a few clusters of students and some stragglers heading down the path towards Hagrid's. Sirius watched as Hagrid came out of his hut and walked over to a fenced in area that was half-hidden behind his hut while the students gathered in a semi-circle around him.

"Righ'…so we're goin' ter be endin' your day today with a nice surprise! I've got a beaut'ful creature tha' many a person has wanted to catch or at leas' see." He paused for dramatic effect, then drew his fingers into his lips and whistled so loudly that many of the students clapped their hands over their ears. "A unicorn!" He said with obvious excitement as he stepped aside and flourished his hand at the pure white unicorn that had wandered from behind Hagrid's hut within the fenced area. Many of the students let out audible gasps and a couple girls squealed delightedly.

Sirius watched the class continue, eventually ending with each student being allowed to come up and pet the unicorn before heading inside. Judging from what Hagrid had said about this being the end of the day, Sirius waited to see if Hagrid also went up to the castle for the dinner feast. He only had to wait five minutes until, after seeing Hagrid lope up to the castle, he was able to make his way closer to get a better look at whether this was his chance to get inside. Staying close and low to the stone walls, Sirius heard the faint sounds of a woman speaking and then considerable ruckus as the meal began. Cautiously he started up the steps to the castle and quickly padded through the entrance hall, eager to get to a more secluded area, expecting that any moment the Great Hall doors would open and he'd be caught. He was tempted to take just a peek in at the feast and maybe catch Harry's eye until he remembered that Harry wouldn't be there. But that was why he was here – to find out where Harry was. With everyone at the feast, Sirius was able to navigate Hogwarts without being seen. He settled in a dark room on the third floor to wait until the students' curfew, when he could go see Dumbledore. He hadn't yet worked out exactly how he was going to get into Dumbledore's office since he couldn't very well risk being seen in his human form around Hogwarts but wouldn't be able to speak the password (if he could even guess it) as Padfoot. He would have to appeal to McGonagall or Snape since they were the only two in the entire castle, other than Dumbledore, who could recognize him as "Snuffles" was and would not immediately summon Dementors to capture him. Well, at least McGonagall wouldn't. Now he'd just have to count on McGonagall's personal quarters being in the same place they had been years before.

After the dinner feast had let out and the noises of the castle quieted, Sirius left his hiding place on the third floor and went to find the last place he knew McGonagall's rooms to be. When he got there, the same painting of a Victorian tea party was hanging in front of the door and the same statue of sphinx stood across from it. He took a spot in the dark corner behind the statue to lay and wait.

It wasn't long before he heard the quick, staccato footsteps of someone he knew had to be either Professor McGonagall or an extremely uptight prefect. He silently sat up, waiting to see her for confirmation before revealing himself. The footsteps got louder and began to slow, and he saw an older, more worn-looking McGonagall approaching. He hesitated, not able to look away from her – only 7 years had passed but judging by her face he would have thought it was 15 or more. Realizing he'd either have to get her attention or go get Snape to let him into Dumbledore's, he made to move out from behind the sphinx. As Professor McGonagall turned away from him and raised her wand to get into her quarters, he calmly moved around her, blocking the painting.

She let out a small scream and her wand immediately snapped towards him, McGonagall ready to stupefy the intruder. Upon seeing the giant black dog she knew, the color went out of her face and her wand dropped to her side. For a moment she stood looking at him with wide eyes, her left hand covering her heart. Sirius wagged his tail for good measure, wanting to appear friendly in case she didn't actually recognize him.

"Sirius?" McGonagall whispered. "Sirius…is that you?"

"Sirius wagged his tail again and let out a chuff, then looked to his left and then his right as if to check for others who might be around and remind McGonagall that he was still a wanted man.

"I'm sorry – Snuffles." She blinked as if suddenly remembering what she had been doing before seeing her supposedly-dead former student appear before her. "Well, come in at once!" she said hurriedly as she poked her wand at the teapot spout, making steam shoot out of it. The portrait opened and Sirius ducked in quickly, followed by his former professor.

Once inside, he changed back to his human form and turned to face McGonagall. He thought they'd talk for a bit and then she'd take him to Dumbledore but definitely didn't expect what she did instead. McGonagall stepped forward, grasped his shoulders, and pulled him into a tight hug. He wouldn't have thought a woman that old could squeeze that hard! The nice thing, Sirius realized, was that the hug wasn't awkward – it was actually comforting and nice to be greeted so warmly by someone he'd known so well before. After patting her on the back, they both pulled away, and he was shocked to see her eyes gleaming with tears. She wasn't actually crying but she was closer than he'd ever seen her.

He coughed, pretending not to see. "I'm sorry to just show up like this…I wouldn't have but-" His words were cut off by a swift whack on the arm from McGonagall.

"After 7 years being gone, during which time we all assumed you to be dead, you do not, Mr. Black, come back and apologize for coming back!" She smiled and the mood lightened considerably.

"Okay then, I'm not sorry! The reason I came to you is I was hoping you'd be able to get me up to Dumbledore's office so I can speak with him and find out where Harry is." He looked anxiously at her. Now that he was at Hogwarts, he was rapidly growing more and more impatient to see Harry and find out what had happened during his time gone.

"Sirius, I'm sorry but I can't do that. I have a lot-" This time it was McGonagall's words that were cut off.

Sirius's impatience and frustration with his lack of understanding everything that was going on came out as he interrupted the professor. "What? That's complete bollocks! I need to talk to him, and I need to find out where Harry is! I don't even know if my godson is alive, let alone what in Merlin's name is going on with the war, the Order, and the rest of my life! You're barking if you think you can stop me from talking to Dumbledore!" Sirius finished his tirade, panting and taking in McGonagall's calm but sad face.

McGonagall hesitated, then softly said, "Sirius, there is a lot you need to be told, and I'm not sure I am the one to do it." She gazed sadly at him, looking almost pitying. The pieces snapped together for Sirius and he grabbed McGonagall's upper arms.

"Harry? It's Harry isn't it? He's dead." He looked searchingly at McGonagall's face, waiting to hear the dreaded news.

"Sirius, Harry isn't dead."

At McGonagall's words, Sirius instantly released her and ran a shaking hand through his long hair. He chuckled a little in sheer relief before his former professor spoke again.

"Dumbledore is."

Sirius actually staggered. He felt his face draining, and it felt as though his blood was leaving his entire body. "Dumbledore…but no…that's not possible. He's the greatest wizard who ever lived." Sirius repeated the line that everyone always said when talking about Dumbledore, and though it sounded cliché from frequent use, it was true. Even as he was shaking his head and denying what she had just told him, Sirius knew those words would never leave McGonagall's lips unless they were true. Nobody would have uttered those words unless they were true. "But how could-" Sirius ran his hand through his hair. "What would have-" He sighed. "How?"

McGonagall gave a small, somewhat bitter smile. "It was part of a bigger plan. Albus knew he was going to die but he made the decisions on exactly how."

Sirius screwed up his face at the vague, cryptic answer. "That doesn't ans-" He started incredulously before she cut him off.

"Sirius, as I said, I am not the one to tell you all this. Let's go to my office – you said you came here to find out about Harry." She raised her eyebrows in question, then turned around to leave after his answering nod. Sirius transformed back into Padfoot and followed her out the portrait door. The pair walked silently to the gargoyle that guarded the office of the headmaster.

Stopping in front of it, McGonagall said the password, "Gumdrop."

Sirius turned his head swiftly to look at her. She tilted her head slightly to look at him and said quietly, "I couldn't let the tradition die with him," then stepped on the now-moving staircase. Sirius stepped on beside her and the two were carried up to the headmaster's office. Upon entering, his eyes were immediately caught by the large painting of Professor Dumbledore directly behind the large desk. Dumbledore's eyes betrayed no hint of surprise or disbelief at seeing Sirius but simply twinkled behind his half-moon glasses as he simply said, "I see I was apparently gravely mistaken in calling it the 'Veil of Death' wasn't I." There was no question in his voice at the statement and he smiled down at the man believed to be dead.

"Department of Mysteries indeed," McGonagall quipped before seating herself at the desk and gesturing for Sirius to also take a chair. Sirius sat in the comfy wingback chair, realizing that this was the first time he had really relaxed since finding himself standing outside the veil. It felt like his entire body had been clenched and his joints were just now slowly releasing themselves. He sighed and let his head drop back, closing his eyes to just take a moment. Already, not even an entire day back in the wizarding world, and everything was turned upside down with learning of Dumbledore's death. It still didn't feel real, partially because Dumbledore was still around (in painting form anyway). He squeezed his eyes shut at what other changes might be awaiting him. At least Harry was alive. That was all that mattered right now. Harry was alive and Sirius was going to keep working to keep him that way, even if Voldemort was at his height of power now. With a jolt, Sirius opened his eyes, realizing for the first time just what the world must be like now – Voldemort at large for 8 years now. There must be several more disappearances, probably more notable than Bertha Jorkins. Remus would have to fill him in on who had gone missing that he personally knew as Sirius knew that inevitably there would be at least someone he knew that would be labeled as a disappearance, and probably more. Sirius's mind went to Hagrid and his brother, as well as the other giants, goblins, and werewolves that had been up in the air before he left. Had they joined in the fray and, if so, on what side? Sirius opened his eyes to find Dumbledore and McGonagall looking at him thoughtfully. Sirius had the strange feeling, as he did many times with Dumbledore, that the old wizard knew his thoughts, as his old headmaster stared down at him knowingly.

Clearing his throat, Sirius started, "So, what now? I already know I've been gone 7 years and I know that somehow people seem to know or at least strongly suspect that I am an animagus and that my form is that of a big, black dog that apparently resembles the Grim." He couldn't help but roll his eyes this time at the notion that in a world where Voldemort and his merry band of Death Eaters were probably still killing at random or at least causing horrific "accidents", people would still find fear in a puppy.

"Sirius as I said," McGonagall said in a firm voice, "I am not the one to explain everything to you. I think we need to call Harry here, and he can tell you what has happened since you've been gone." He perked up at hearing her words. He finally would get to see the person he had been traveling and waiting all day for. McGonagall continued, "I know Potter doesn't like it, but I think floo powder will probably be the quickest way to get him here." She moved from around the desk to stand in front of the fireplace. Taking a handful of the green powder, she threw it into the fire, then bent down and put her head into the now green flames. "Potter, would you be able to come to my office immediately?" There was a pause, then, "No, there's nothing wrong but I have something that I urgently need to discuss with you." She paused again and Sirius held his breath, waiting to hear confirmation from McGonagall that Harry was going to come. He finally let out a breath when he heard her say, "Okay, good. I will see you shortly." She pulled her head out of the flames, which then returned to their normal yellow-orange color. Straightening her robes, she made her way back behind the desk and sat down. "He said he has a few things to finish up and then he will come by floo. We need to decide how exactly we are going to tell him. Goodness knows it probably wouldn't be best for him to walk out of the fireplace and straight into you. I think you should wait just outside the door while I give an introduction into what has happened, at least the very little I know." At seeing Sirius's mouth open in what she assumed would be protest, she firmly said, "Sirius, I don't think he should have the shock of seeing you return after 7 years. I don't think it would be good for him and I don't think it's fair to spring it on him like that. You don't know how your apparent death affected him."

At those words, Sirius shut his mouth and resignedly nodded his consent. McGonagall summarily nodded once in return, got up from the desk and ushered him to the door. "We should have you get a move on before heactually does floo here and walk right into you." She opened the door and gestured for him to follow suit and stand outside. "Before Potter arrives, I want to tell you I am very glad you are back, and I hope your life is happier this second time around." She quickly reached up, kissed him on the cheek, and swiftly shut the door in his face before he even had a chance to respond. Sirius had never heard Professor McGonagall speak so motherly to him – she was also business-as-usual McGonagall who was not unkind but was not well known for her maternal attributes. He was touched that she not only seemed to genuinely care about him but also obviously had a soft spot for Harry. McGonagall had never had a soft spot for anybody, to Sirius's knowledge anyway. Several times he had witnessed McGonagall's care for his godson and it made him feel better knowing that she was there looking out for him, especially if Voldemort was still a threat. Sirius had been so busy worrying about Harry and seeing him that he hadn't really considered for very long what the world might be like now – whether Voldemort was still around, whether the Order was still together, and what other changes had happened in the lives of those around him.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of flames erupting from the fireplace. Sirius anxiously shifted on his feet and wiped his suddenly damp palms on his pants. He wasn't sure what to expect – he knew he had been an important part of Harry's life seven years ago, but what about now? What if Sirius wasn't needed in Harry's new, suddenly adult life? Perhaps Remus had stepped in and taken his place as acting godfather. Maybe Remus and Harry had the kind of relationship Sirius had always hoped to have with Harry. He closed his eyes and shook his head tightly. This was no time to panic about silly things like that. He silenced his thoughts and turned his ear towards the door, listening for what was being said on the other side.

"Hello Potter. Thank you for coming on such short notice." McGonagall's voice sounded tense even to Sirius, and he imagined the tight-lipped, slightly severe look she must have right now.

"No problem, Professor McGonagall. Is everything okay? I think the only time you've ever asked me to come here like this was when you needed to tell me about Neville." At this, Sirius almost gasped, not wanting to hear what had happened to the boy. He hadn't known Neville particularly well, but had always had a soft spot for the son of Frank and Alice. They were two of the nicest people he had ever known and from the bits and pieces he had picked up from Harry, he knew Neville to be very similar to his parents. It made him sad to think that anything had happened to him when he'd always been there for Harry even though he certainly had his own hardships to deal with.

Realizing he had missed the following conversation between McGonagall and Harry, he tuned in once more to find out where she was in the process of telling him. "Potter, I have something I need to tell you that is going to come as quite a shock to you. Tonight when I had finished the castle patrol, I was going to my quarters when I found someone waiting for me outside my door." At this, she hesitated, seeming to not know exactly how to proceed. "I – I don't know how else to say this…but it was Sirius." Sirius felt as if everyone in the room, including all the portraits, were holding their breath.

"What? Sirius has been gone for 7 years! There is no way that it was him – it had to be some imposter!" Sirius jumped slightly at Harry's angry tone. Of course, he couldn't blame him. If he'd been on the receiving end of that news, he would have been more than a little suspicious himself, especially with Voldemort in power. Harry continued, "Where did he go? Is he is still here? I want to see the person who is impersonating my dead godfather!"

_That's my cue _Sirius thought, taking in a deep, calming breath and he began to push open the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Second Chance  
**Rating:** T for now, though that may change in the future  
**Summary:** Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!  
**Author's Note:** I haven't read Deathly Hallows since it came out so there may be some inconsistencies with that, which I'm sorry for, but overall they don't change the story.

* * *

The door made a slight creaking sound as he slowly opened it. Before he could move further, let alone speak, Sirius found the tip of Harry's wand pointed directly at his heart. As many thoughts that were going through his mind, Sirius couldn't help but be impressed by his godson's immediate response. He was suddenly taken back to another time when he had found himself at the end of his godson's wand, back in Harry's third year when they still believed him to be Sirius Black, mass murderer. Sirius had been impressed back then too.

"Potter, put that wand away!" McGonagall spoke up sharply. "Now!"

But Harry didn't pocket his wand nor did he lower it even a centimeter. Instead, he gripped it even more firmly and ground out, "Professor, I would have thought you of all people would exercise more caution at a sudden, unexpected visit by someone who is supposed to be dead." He didn't even move his eyes to look at his former professor, keeping a level look fixed on Sirius.

At this, Sirius felt it was time for him to say something. "Harry, if you don't believe Professor McGonagall that it is indeed me, then ask me something. Ask me anything. Something only I would know. Or maybe I can ask you something," he paused, looking directly into Harry's green eyes. "Like where the mirror I gave you in your fifth year is?" Harry's expression immediately changed from one of suspicion to one of complete shock. Sirius softly said, "It's me, Harry." His godson stared at him a moment longer before he started forward, taking Sirius in a tight hug. Sirius closed his eyes to hold back tears as he clapped his own arms around his godson's back. Harry buried his head in Sirius's shoulder, holding on tightly to the man he had come to think of as a mix of a brother and father, the man he thought he'd lost forever. They stayed like that for almost a minute before pulling away. When they did, Sirius stood with his hands on Harry's shoulders, looking at the 15 year old boy he'd known who had changed into the 22 year old man before him. He realized that for the first time he was actually looking at his godson, not seeing the ghost of the friend he had lost too early. And it was so indescribably good to see him. He couldn't help pulling him in for another hug. They broke apart and McGonagall spoke.

"Mr. Potter, perhaps you would care to retract your statement about my lack of caution?" Harry looked over at her sheepishly and her lips pulled up in one of her rare smiles. Her former student shyly nodded his head and she swiftly nodded hers in response saying, "Okay, now I think perhaps I should draw up a chair and we should sit down to discuss everything." With that, she took out her wand and conjured up a chair matching the one already sitting before her desk. Harry and Sirius sat down, grinning. "Now, I would imagine that you both have a lot of questions for each other, as do I." She sat with her elbows upon the desk and her fingertips touching in a way not entirely unlike Dumbledore. "Who wants to start?"

Harry and Sirius looked at each other, then erupted with questions at the same time.

"I just don't understand how this is even possible!"

"What is going on with Voldemort?"

Professor McGonagall held up her hands and they fell quiet. "When I asked who wanted to go first, that was not meant to be an opening for you both to interrogate each other at the same time. Now, Mr. Potter I think you should begin your questions first since we still do not know how it is even possible you are here, Sirius."

"Thank you professor," started Harry. "I want to know how you came to be here, Sirius. I just don't understand how after 7 years you can - pardon my expression – magically appear after so long."

Sirius shrugged and held his hands out in a surrendered gesture. "I know it's not what you want to hear, but I don't know, Harry. I just found myself where I left off – in the Department of Mysteries right next to the veil."

"But it's known as the 'death veil'!" Harry said somewhat incredulously at his godfather's tenebrous explanation.

"Ah, Harry," Dumbledore spoke up from his portrait on the wall. "I have already admitted to Sirius my mistake and am not above confessing it to you as well. If you remember, I was the one who mislabeled it as the 'death veil.' Nobody had ever been known to come out of it and so it was as if those who had gone in were dead. I was the person responsible for that term being bandied about. I hoped at the time it would help you let go and let you begin the healing process with losing Sirius. Of course, the term had been given to the veil by others, but I was the one who introduced it to you. I am sorry for the very critical and distressing error." He looked apologetically down at his former students. "Obviously, very little is known about the peculiar veil, thus why it resides in the Department of Mysteries. I am quite certain that the sudden, seemingly unexplainable reappearance of Sirius will reopen the file on it. On that note, I feel it is rather useless to continue this line of questioning as no one has ever returned from the veil and at this point, Sirius's return is quite baffling to all." Sirius and Harry looked at each other, the younger still looking agitated at the lack of explanation but nonetheless agreeing that answers would not be forthcoming at this point.

"I'm sorry, Potter, but Professor Dumbledore is right – questioning Sirius further on his whereabouts the past seven years is unlikely to produce any clarification," McGonagall spoke. "Rather, I think it would be much more fruitful to enlighten Sirius on what all has happened in the time he has been gone. Sirius, can you tell us what you remember from before your disappearance?" She looked at Sirius.

Clearing his throat, Sirius wiped his hands on his slacks, feeling suddenly as though he had a bright spotlight shining directly on him. He remembered feeling this way when Professor McGonagall had questioned him and James after an incident involving some dungbombs being let off inside the Slytherin loos. He felt distinctly more nervous now. "Well, we'd heard that Harry and his friends had gone to the Department of Mysteries in search of me because of an image Voldemort had put in Harry's head. We got there and were battling with the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry, in the room with the veil. Most of the others had been rounded up by Dumbledore, but I was still fighting my cousin Bellatrix. She shot me with the Cruciatus Curse and I felt pain for a second before falling backwards into the Veil. I could hear Harry shouting for me but then everything started getting muffled until it was finally silent. The next thing I was aware of was being back in the Department of Mysteries beside the veil." Sirius shrugged his shoulders, unsure of what else to say.

"And you remember where we were in the fight against Voldemort?" McGonagall questioned, looking at him carefully.

"You mean that he had returned, was at large, and looking for the-" at this point, he stopped short and glanced over at Harry, unsure just how much his godson was cognizant of. The last he knew, he wasn't allowed to tell Harry the important information Voldemort was seeking. Remembering what he had told him when they had talked about it at Grimmauld Place the summer before Harry's fifth year, he continued, "–the weapon he was hoping to get his hands on." He looked over to see his godson grinning.

"It's alright, Sirius. I know what Voldemort was looking for. I actually found out that night you went into the veil. And Voldemort didn't end up getting the prophecy; it broke and Dumbledore was the one who explained to me what exactly it meant."

Sirius gazed at Harry, feeling suddenly very sad for his godson and the knowledge he had found out – that he would have to kill or be killed. He had finally found out what the members of the Order had known for over a dozen years – that Harry was literally a marked man. He would end up either dead or forever changed by having to end someone's life. That was something you never forgot and never were the same after. Before his supposed death, Sirius had completely disagreed with Dumbledore's insistence that Harry not be aware of the information Voldemort was after. At that time, Sirius had felt that they needed to do whatever was needed in order to bring Voldemort down and it had been that much more emphasized by the fact that he had felt so helpless and useless in the fight. He now fully understood why Dumbledore had hesitated so in revealing to Harry his fate.

Tears prickled his eyes, and he looked down at his hands in his lap. He hadn't been there when his godson had found out possibly the most terrible news of his life. Guilt weighed on him at not having been there for Harry when he went through some of the hardest times of his life – losing his parents, being raised by people who had by all counts abused him, and now learning that his future was doomed in some way no matter what he did. He felt a hand on his shoulder but didn't look up.

Harry's soft voice spoke in the otherwise silent room. "Sirius, it's okay. I'm glad I found out – I couldn't go on not knowing forever. I was going to have to know what I was up against at some point." Sirius nodded in agreement.

"I still hate that that was put on you, Harry. You've had enough to deal with and it just seems incredibly unfair that you would need to carry that weight too."

"So would you say I'm catching up to you then in the 'life is unfair' department?" Harry said with a grin. "If you'll recall, I'm not the one who got screwed over by one of my best mates, was locked up in Azkaban over a decade for a crime I didn't commit, and basically died for a bit," he paused. "Well, except for that last one. I did that too." Then he grinned again at the stupefied expression on his godfather's face.

The room was silent for a short moment until Sirius burst out, "What do you mean you _died for a bit_?" and stared with somewhat wild eyes at his godson. Even in the wizarding world, "dying for a bit" wasn't something that was considered normal or healthy.

"I have a lot to tell you before I get to _that_," Harry said. Feeling very much like he did in his fourth year when he'd had to tell Dumbledore and Sirius what he'd seen in the Triwizard Tournament maze, he narrated the long story of the events that had happened since Sirius's disappearance. Just as before, there were times while Harry was talking that Sirius bent over his hands, closing his eyes tightly against what he was hearing. He let a vehement curse upon hearing that Dumbledore's death had occurred at the end of Snape's wand.

But, to Sirius's surprise, Harry would not hear of it. "Sirius," he said firmly. "Before you say anything else, you need to know the rest of the story. And I don't want to hear you say anything else about Professor Snape until I am completely finished." Sirius could only stare in bewildered silence at hearing, possibly for the first time ever, his godson address his least favorite teacher by his proper title without being reprimanded by a teacher to do so. "I know you don't understand but by the end you will." With that, Harry continued the story of leaving after Dumbledore's death to track down the horcruxes, Snape's death, and finally the gruesome battle at Hogwarts. At this point, Harry had to stop. He seemed unsure of how to continue.

"Sirius…" he started haltingly. "There were some…losses in the battle at Hogwarts." He opened his mouth to continue but no sound came out, and he looked between Sirius and McGonagall.

Sirius sighed deeply. He knew there were going to be more losses, just like last time, but he was afraid to hear who. There had to be at least someone fairly close to him that had died for Harry to have this much trouble telling him. The question was who – was it one of the Weasleys? Or perhaps Dung had been on the receiving end of Avada Kedavra. Or could it have been one of Harry's close friends? He still hadn't heard the fates of Hermione or Ron. Maybe Harry was having such a difficult time because it was someone close to him, not Sirius. He looked at his godson, waiting for him to continue. Harry gazed back at Sirius, then looked again at Professor McGonagall. It was she who spoke next.

"Sirius, I'm afraid a few of the deaths were people you knew and were close to." His former professor was looking at him with sadness.

"Well, who were they? He held his breath, waiting to hear the names of Rosmerta or Dung or perhaps one of his former teachers.

"Among those who died were Remus and Tonks. I'm sorry."

Once again, Sirius felt as though he'd had the wind knocked out of him and gasped for breath. "Moony?" he asked in a quiet voice, not really needing an answer. He dropped his head in his hands, tears trailing out of the corners of his eyes and down his cheeks. There weren't many things that could make Sirius Black cry, but the death of the only friend he had left was one of them. It felt as though a Dementor had suddenly swooped into the room; he felt alone and hopeless as he thought of himself being the only true Marauder left. His mind replayed memories of Remus from their days at Hogwarts, the short time before the death of James and his own sentence to Azkaban, and reuniting at Hogwarts 12 years later. And Tonks. One of the only family members he actually liked and respected. He wondered how Andromeda was dealing with her daughter's death.

With his head still down, he asked, "Anyone else?" his voice hoarse and his breath held still in his chest and he waited for the blow of hearing that others he cared about had died in his absence.

The room was silent a moment as everyone hesitated; Harry then spoke. "Fred Weasley was also killed in the final battle. There were others but I don't think any of whom you were particularly close to." They all waited to see what Sirius would do next. Sirius himself wasn't quite sure. The natural question that came to mind was exactly how Fred, Remus, and Tonks had died, but he wasn't certain he could handle hearing those kind of details right now. He didn't think so.

Clearing his throat in the otherwise silent room, he raised his head and looked between Harry and McGonagall. He nodded his head as if finishing up a business agreement. "Okay." He let out a breath, mentally shook off the bad news he had just received, and directed his gaze at Harry. "Now explain exactly what you meant when you said that you said that 'basically died for a bit'?"

Harry coughed slightly and Sirius watched a slight smile pulled his lips for a moment, was tucked away, then peeked out again. "Right, about that," he paused as if not sure where to start. "One thing that was made clear while I was in Severus's pensieve was that eventually it would come down to Voldemort and myself." At this Sirius nodded for that had been something the entire order had been aware of. "That was something all of us knew by then. What we didn't know was that when Voldemort tried to kill me, he inadvertently made me a horcrux." Sirius sat for a moment, stunned at what he had just heard. Then a cold feeling went through him as he realized the implications of Harry being a horcrux.

"But then..." he trailed off, not wanting to finish his thought.

Harry nodded and finished his sentence, "In order for Voldemort to be defeated, all of his horcruxes needed to be destroyed, otherwise the piece of him contained within the horcrux would always leave a window for him to come back." Harry took a deep breath, then let it out and continued. "That meant that I had to willingly let Voldemort kill me, so at the same time he would be destroying one of his own horcruxes, the last horcrux, and someone would be able to then defeat him for good."

Sirius again felt tears sting his eyes and goose bumps rise on his arms at the chilling picture Harry had just painted for him. This reminded him of Harry's fourth year when he'd been in this same office and had heard the horrifying things his godson had gone through then. He had much the same feeling now, but his horror was intensified. He felt a myriad of emotions surge through him – extreme sadness imagining the moment Harry discovered what he would have to do, anger at Voldemort for being the cause of all of this, slight panic at hearing that his godson had found himself at the end of Voldemort's wand again, and even a bit of joy that despite this news, his godson was sitting before him now.

Harry continued, telling how he went to the forest to find Voldemort but paused when he got to the part about the Resurrection Stone. Just as in his fourth year so many years ago, he looked to Dumbledore, unsure of how to continue.

"When the Resurrection Stone opened, it did as its name would suggest and, in a way, resurrected those dear to him whom he had lost," the former headmaster explained. "Harry has told me that those resurrected included James and Lily, Remus, and you, Sirius."

Sirius was flabbergasted. How had he been "resurrected" when they weren't even entirely sure he had died in the first place? Harry voiced similar thoughts a moment later.

"Professor," he started slowly, addressing Dumbledore. "What I don't understand is how Sirius was resurrected when it seems he wasn't even dead to begin with? Wouldn't someone had to have died in order to be resurrected?"

Dumbledore nodded as if understanding their dilemma with the stone. "I do have a theory on that. The thing to consider is what the stone's purpose is. As I told you years ago, Harry, when you first encountered _Prior Incantatum_, no spell can actually reawaken or resurrect the dead. The stone's main point is to serve almost as a comfort for those that use it. The echoes that appear are specific to the person using the stone and do not actually serve any purpose. For example, you could not call upon the Resurrection Stone and send the echoes that appear to your enemy to do him harm. They exist, in a manner of speaking, only as a medium between the person holding the stone and those they no longer have in their lives. My theory is that the stone will "resurrect" those people that the holder of the stone misses and needs at the moment they are using the stone. They are not necessarily those who have died, but they are people that have, in the mind of the stone-holder, permanently left their lives."

"So basically someone who isn't dead can be "resurrected" because the person using the stone believes that person to be gone?" Sirius asked doubtfully.

"Correct, Sirius," Dumbledore said, smiling down at his former pupil. "The stone's magic is based on the individual person using it and really serves no particular purpose except an emotional one…love. The stone conjures those the user loves and misses. For Harry, it functioned much like the Mirror of Erised."

Harry grinned. "It always comes back to love, doesn't it professor?"

Dumbledore laughed softly in return. "While it may sound rather like one of those muggle pictures, it is true my boy. Never underestimate that immense power."

Sirius listened as Harry continued with the events of his death, and when he described his state after Voldemort's killing curse, Sirius could tell that his godson was uncomfortable. As much as he had tried to play it off as a joke and make light of the serious occurrence, Sirius knew that it was the kind of thing that he would never completely shake off and when faced directly with it, would actually unsettle him. He completely understood when Harry moved quickly on to recovering his physical body, being carried back to the castle, and the final confrontation between him and Voldemort. By the end of the entire tale, Sirius felt exhausted. He sighed allowed, running his hand over his face. He noted the tired look in Harry's eyes and the yawn that McGonagall was currently trying her best to stifle.

"Look, it's getting late, we're all tired, and I think I've taken in about as much news as I'm able to handle at this point. What do you say we all call it a night and can resume this tomorrow?" The three of them nodded.

"We do have a lot more to cover," McGonagall stated as they all made their way to the door. "There's still a lot concerning you that you don't know yet, Sirius."

He nodded acknowledgement. "How about we all get together tomorrow? What day is it – do you have class tomorrow, Professor?"

"Yes, I do, so I think anytime after dinner would be fine. Should we say 8:00 tomorrow night, here?"

The men nodded, saying their goodbyes to McGonagall and Dumbledore, and took the revolving staircase down. They were silent until they reached the main hall, when Harry spoke. "You don't have a place to stay do you?" He paused in his walking, looking at Sirius.

"I'm not sure but I don't think so. I'm assuming my status is currently 'dead'?" He looked for confirmation at Harry, who nodded. "And I don't know whether Grimmauld Place is still intact…" he trailed off, not really sure what to do now. Harry answered this a moment later.

"Actually, when you died, Grimmauld Place was left to me. I gave it to the Order for their use during the war, then moved in shortly after the final battle. Of course, now that you're back it will be yours, so can I invite you to stay in your own house?" Harry grinned at Sirius, who had held back a grimace at the thought of staying in the gloomy house of his childhood. But he couldn't refuse the offer to stay with his godson and get reacquainted again after 7 years. He hoped this would be the last time he would have to suddenly reappear in Harry's life after several years. Maybe he'd have the opportunity to actually stay a permanent fixture this time.

"I'd love to, if I'll have myself," Sirius cracked, beaming at Harry, who rolled his eyes, grabbed Sirius without another word and side-along apparated them to the house of Black.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Second Chance

**Rating:** T for now, though that may change in the future

**Summary:** Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!

**Author's Note:** Thanks to those of you that reviewed! Don't worry, Hermione will definitely make an appearance soon but I want to really develop the story. I haven't forgotten about Teddy either – though he probably won't be a huge fixture. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

When they popped back into existence, Sirius found that they were standing on the front stoop of Grimmauld Place. He bent back slightly to look straight up at the tall building. It looked the exact same as the last time he had seen it. The dark brick was still dulled with age, there were still cobwebs collecting in every window sill, and there was still dark ivy clinging to the exterior. He held in a deep sigh. Even though everything around him had changed, his parents' house, the one thing he wanted changed more than anything, remained the same. Beside him, Harry moved forward, raising his wand to mutter an unlocking charm. He pushed the heavy door open, and Sirius followed his godson inside. He was careful to be quiet so as not to wake the portrait of his batty mother. She was the last thing he wanted welcoming him back to his old home.

In front of him, he heard the swish of Harry's arm and he blinked against the light from the many candles Harry had lit with his wand. Once he was able to see properly again, Sirius was astonished at what he saw. Though the outside had looked entirely the same as when he left, the inside looked that much different. The dark wood paneling that had once cloaked the hallway in black was gone, replaced by a coat of subdued gold paint. The sinister umbrella holder had been replaced by a handsome wooden coat rack. As Sirius looked around the now light hall, he noted that the many portraits along the walls had been removed and in their place were a number of picture collages. He took a few steps, standing before one. It contained a few pictures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, one from some formal event, another from what appeared to be Hogwarts graduation, and the last a candid shot from what looked like the Burrow. He smiled as he saw that one frame of the collage displayed Professor Dumbledore's chocolate frog card. There was one picture of the entire Weasley clan, which now appeared to also include Fleur Delacour as she was dressed in a white gown with Bill in a tuxedo and the rest of the Weasleys surrounding the newly-married couple. Most of the rest of the frames showed older photos. Sirius's breath caught as he found a picture of Lily, James, Remus, and himself. It was probably one of the few shots of their group without Peter. He remembered the day this one was taken – they had gathered at Lily and James's but Peter had said that he had something to do. Looking back, the fact that their rat friend hadn't specified why he couldn't come was suspicious and he shook his head that he hadn't realized that at the time. Two other frames were filled with similar pictures – one being the photo that Sirius had given him back in his fifth year of the Order of the Phoenix before they had lost anyone in the first war, and the second photo an updated Order of the Phoenix roster that must have been taken sometime after his disappearance, Snape's supposed betrayal, and Dumbledore's death, for the three of them were not one of the solemn faces looking back at him. He noted that this photo included the younger generation as well – Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and, youngest of all, Ginny. Sirius randomly wondered what arguments had to occur for her to be counted as a member of the Order. He almost chuckled out loud at the thought – the youngest Weasley was definitely a match for her mother.

Sirius didn't realize he had been staring at the picture so long until Harry spoke next to him. "That was taken before we left in our seventh year. I wish we had taken it before the end of sixth year so Severus and Dumbledore could have been in it, but us kids weren't yet considered part of the Order." Harry stared thoughtfully at the picture and Sirius wondered what thoughts were going on in his head at that moment. It was so strange to look at the familiar face of his godson, who now looked almost like a twin of his father, but know that everything in Harry's life had changed from when Sirius had left it. Harry had been through so many huge, life-altering things while he had been gone, and it was strange to not know his godson's life.

Mentally shaking off the solemnity that seemed to be weighing on the hall, Sirius continued his passage, taking time to examine each collage of photos. Harry went through all of them with him, pointing out a picture of the trio dancing awkwardly together at Bill and Fleur's wedding, a picture of Dumbledore's Army all grown up, and two photos of Ron and Hermione each being awarded the Order of Merlin, which Sirius was sure Harry too must have received but, ever modest, declined to also display. They got to the end of the hall and Sirius realized the heavy black curtain that was used to hide Sirius's mother from view was gone. In its place hung a portrait of himself, Sirius noticed with a startle. He looked quickly from the painting of himself to his godson, words completely escaping his mind.

Harry spoke in his godfather's stunned silence, "It took a bit of swearing and some incredible charm work from Hermione, but we managed to remove your mother. She left a good amount of the goo from her sticking charm, though, so we decided to replace her portrait with who we felt was the true head of the house of Black." Sirius was touched so that he had to swallow hard to hold back the tears that threatened his eyes. He'd never been honored such as this, and this was the most sincere gesture he could have asked for. He took a moment to compose himself, in the meantime noticing something odd about the painting.

"I'm not moving at all. All wizarding portraits have the person's personality magically infused into it – how does this not have that?"

"We decided not to do a wizarding portrait but a muggle one – partly because Dumbledore explained that it's not possible for all wizards to become portraits and partly because we were pretty sure that if your mother could see it, she'd throw a fit at having such a 'filthy muggle display' in her house." They both grinned at that reasoning.

"Well you certainly did me honor with that gesture!" Sirius said in a grandiose voice. He looked down the hall at the entirely new look. "I have to admit I was rather dreading coming back here, but it looks like you've changed everything so much. I couldn't imagine you living in the same house that I left." Sirius shook his head at the thought.

"Well, we had already tackled a lot the summer before my fifth year with you, at least with getting some of the nastier creatures out, so it was more a matter of just making it all look better and get rid of the grim, old feel of the place. The Weasleys and Hermione were a lot of help in that department."

Nodding, Sirius took a few steps, saying, "Well, can I see what you've done with the rest of it?" Harry nodded in return and led the way up the stairs. Sirius looked around, amazed at how different Grimmauld Place was from when he had left. He took note that Harry had kept the same room he and Ron had shared when visiting rather than taking the larger master bedroom that had been Sirius's. As they made their way back down towards the kitchen, Harry stopped outside what had previously been the study, where the Black family tapestry hung with his and various other family members scorched out. Harry opened the door and the two stepped into the room. Although he often tried to make light of the fact that his mother had banished him from the family tapestry, and thus from the family, the fact that his family wasn't a whole and happy one had always bothered him. When he'd go over to James's, and after he finally left Grimmauld Place for good, he'd had a pulling sensation in his chest upon seeing James with his mother and father and grandparents – a complete, loving family.

Tensing, Sirius turned slightly to look at the wall covered with the tapestry, only to find it replaced by more photo collages similar to those in the front hall. He stared at the place the tapestry had been.

"We didn't get rid of the tapestry completely because it still gives a record of your family, but we wanted it taken down. I hope you don't mind." Harry said softly, looking unsure at his godfather's reaction.

Sirius shook his head. "Mind? You think I mind? I'm glad you've taken it down. Thank you for saving it, though. You're right – there's a great deal of history in that." He smiled at his godson and took a look around at the rest of the room. At the far end were two chairs with a small table between, on which was a chess board. Sirius counted six bookshelves total, all of which had been filled completely. In one corner was a comfy looking chair and a small table with a Tiffany lamp. It was clear who had gotten a hold of this room.

"So I'm guessing this is the room Hermione took charge of?"

Harry nodded in return and the two men shared a grin. He silently thanked Hermione, thinking that this could very well be his favorite room of the house. He took one last look around before they made their way down to the kitchen, which previously was the room that most resembled a dungeon. Once again, Sirius was in awe of what he saw. The cement block walls had been painted a deep, serene blue and the long, old wooden table the Order had sat around many times had been sanded and re-varnished, making it look brand new. Sirius could still faintly make out the long black burn caused by a cauldron Fred and George had bewitched shortly after they turned 17 and were allowed to use magic outside of school. Sirius chuckled quietly – Grimmauld Place had been turned on its head the summer Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Harry had stayed there.

"What are you on about?" Harry asked from Sirius's side, clearly confused at why his godfather would be laughing at the newly redone kitchen.

Not able to help himself, he laughed again at the look on Harry's face. "I'm just glad to see you didn't completely obliterate evidence that the Weasley twins were here." He pointed to the faded burn, still chuckling.

Harry laughed, moving around Sirius. "Yeah, well, I don't think I could have completely erased evidence of that. D'you fancy a butterbeer?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Sounds great," Sirius said, sitting on the long side of the table, nearest the rest of the kitchen. "Thanks." He took a moment to absorb everything that he'd heard and seen today. His feeling that everything was different the instant he had found himself back in the Department of Mysteries had been spot on, and his mind had been working overtime today trying to fully realize just how much things had changed. His musings were cut short as Harry wandered back to the table with two frothy, amber butterbeers in hand. Holding one out to Sirius, he sat down and took a deep drink from his drink.

They sat there for a while in companionable silence, mulling over the day. Sirius gazed thoughtfully at his godson, not for the first time finding himself surprised with the changes he saw there. It was so strange to last know him as a growing teenager and return to find him a mature adult. He felt his face grow hot at how he had treated Harry at times during his fifth year. It was the first year that Sirius really got to spend time with his godson and get to know him as Harry, not James and Lily's son. He had quickly learned that while his best friend's son looked in almost every way like his father, his eyes and character he adopted from Lily. Sirius hadn't realized just what toerags he and James used to be. He had felt horrible when Harry had come to them through floo just to talk about Snape's memory. That was the only real-life glimpse of his father he had and it definitely wasn't a pretty one. He'd meant what he said back in Harry's third year, that it was unfair he himself had gotten to spend so much time with James and Harry so little.

Even though Sirius and James had been best friends, Sirius felt a connection to Harry that he and James hadn't had. Harry and Sirius had both lived and suffered families they didn't identify with who treated them badly. Neither of their lives had been easy, and it made him sad to think that that was the connection he and his godson shared. It felt like all his and Harry's lives had been were bad memories, and he wanted to move on to happier ones.

"So what has been happening since I left? I don't see a ring, so I assume you haven't married the Weasley bird…yet anyway," Sirius said, not able to hold back a grin at his godson's indignant look upon hearing his girlfriend referred to as just some "bird".

Clearly choosing to take the high road, Harry responded, "No, not yet. We started dating in my sixth year but kind of broke things off while I was away. We stayed friends, and a few years after the final battle we started to date again. We've been together since." Here Harry paused and Sirius raised his eyebrows at his godson. "I _have_ been looking at rings lately…" Harry trailed off sheepishly, shooting a smile at his godfather.

"I knew it!" Sirius slapped the table, causing butterbeer to slosh in his glass and run down the side of his mug. "I knew you two would end up together!" He exclaimed, as though he had just won a bet. In a way he had because Moony and he had talked a few times about whether Harry and Ginny would get married. He quickly changed the direction of his thoughts, avoiding the inevitable pain that was now associated with memories of Remus. "So Ron's okay then with you hooking up with his sister?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Again choosing to be the mature of the two, Harry nodded his head. "When he first found about us in our sixth year, I think he was pretty shocked, but as long as he didn't have to really see it, he was okay with it." He shrugged. "I thought things might be weird after he and Hermione broke it off, but things were okay."

Sirius almost choked on his butterbeer. "Ron and Hermione ended up together?" he asked, surprised at the pairing.

"Well, no, that's the point isn't it?" Harry said teasingly, though his expression soon turned more serious. "They started dating at Hogwarts and if it hadn't been for the war they probably would have ended up together, but they both just changed…like everybody. Things just didn't work after that." He took a drink from his butterbeer and Sirius got the impression that he didn't want to elaborate. He could definitely understand what Harry was describing – Voldemort hitting close to home changed everything.

They talked the remainder of the night, mainly Harry telling Sirius various occurrences of the past 7 years. Before long, Harry started yawning and the two of them headed up the stairs. "Er…we really haven't done much with your room, so you might want to take one of the other rooms for tonight. We can get your room in order tomorrow," Harry said, almost sounding guilty that he hadn't prepared Sirius's room.

Sirius shook his head breezily, shrugging. "That's alright; I can grab a guest room. I think I'll take a look at my old room before hitting the sack though."

Harry nodded, looked at his godfather, then said, "Welcome back, Sirius." Sirius noted the slight waver in his godson's voice and stepped toward him. They wrapped each other in a hug before letting go and heading to their respective rooms.

Sirius opened the door to his room to find complete darkness within. Fumbling along the wall to his right, he finally located the switch and flicked it up, washing the room in somewhat dim lighting. Looking up, he saw that the ornate light fixture on the ceiling was heavily covered with cobwebs. Harry wasn't kidding when he said they hadn't done much with the room. Turning his eyes from the light, Sirius blinked a few times letting his gaze sweep around the room. He realized that what Harry had actually meant was that no one had touched his room since his apparent death. Although it had been 7 years since he had disappeared, his room (excluding the blanket of spider webs and dust covering everything) looked as though he might have left it just that morning. There were a few random articles of clothing thrown over a chair by his dresser, and several of the dresser drawers were halfway or a quarter pulled out in the owner's hurried attempt to get clothes. He shuddered lightly at why he had been hurrying to grab clothes – his godson and all of his friends were in grave danger in the Department of Mysteries and he'd had to go help save them. Things would be so different now if he hadn't dashed out of the house recklessly that evening, unwilling to take orders from Snape.

Sirius shook his head, his long dark hair falling around his face. Taking a deep breath, he mentally pushed the thoughts from his mind. He was not going to go down that road again and make the mistakes he had made previously. Thinking of his godson, he could hardly believe that Harry had been through all he had in the time he had been gone. Sirius looked at him with a newfound respect as a grown man and pride in his godson. Harry had been through more than anybody he knew – and he knew a lot of people that had lived through some really horrifying experiences – and it seemed that he had come out okay from it. He wasn't bitter or angry or any of the other things that Sirius himself probably would have been had it been he who had gone through the things his godson did. It made Sirius ashamed when he looked back on the way he had acted and the feelings he'd had while in Grimmauld Place before going into the veil. He had definitely been bitter and angry, as well as sulky and a bad example for Harry and his friends. Worst of all was that he had been selfish. And he knew it at the time but hadn't particularly cared at that point. He was too busy being sullen and resentful. He was embarrassed that his own godson was able to clearly come out a better man despite all he had been through when he himself had allowed himself to wallow and had done more harm than good in the Order after Azkaban.

Sighing, Sirius left the dingy room and began to check out the many guest rooms available to him. After opening several doors, he found one he liked with warm beige walls and green and ivory bedding and accents. He was still amazed with everything Harry and his friends had done with the old house. As he undressed down to his boxers and undershirt, Sirius thought that despite how much he had been dreading coming back to Grimmauld Place, maybe he'd actually like staying here now, if that would be okay with Harry anyway. He crawled into bed and lay on his back, hoping that sleep would soon catch him. With everything the day had brought him, he was surprised when he found himself unable to lie still in bed. After half an hour of constantly switching positions, Sirius sat up in bed. His mind was too full of all the information he had been told today. The day had been so full and he had learned so much that he hadn't been able to fully process everything that had been revealed to him. Running his hand absently through his hair, he stood and silently opened the door to the dark hallway. Running his hand along the wall, Sirius padded quietly through the hall until he reached the door of his destination. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him before feeling his way through the room. Working not to stub his toe, he finally found what he was looking for and pulled the chain on the Tiffany lamp, washing the library in soft light. He took a look around the room, once again amazed with the change that had made to the room. Walking over to the nearest bookshelf on his left, he surveyed the titles, chuckling to himself upon seeing _Hogwarts: A History_ shelved as the very first book, the only book not in alphabetical order.

Continuing his journey around the room, he paused at each bookshelf to look at it contents, unsurprised when he saw one bookshelf dedicated entirely to muggle novels. He realized with some surprise that outside of Hermione's life at Hogwarts, he had no idea what the girl was like. About the only thing he knew was that her parents were Muggle dentists – it seemed such an incongruous history for such a brilliant witch. Shrugging, Sirius absentmindedly pulled a couple of the novels from the shelves, perusing their covers with no intention of sitting down to read any of them. Rubbing a hand over his face, he moved back to the bookshelf containing _Hogwarts: A History. _Grabbing it, he sat down in one of the comfortable chairs – if anything would put him to sleep, it would certainly be this book. He opened the very worn cover - it was clear this was the same book Hermione had toted around all through her Hogwarts years and he vaguely wondered if she had purchased a new one to replace the one she had left here or if she visited Grimmauld Place and Harry often enough that she didn't miss it much. Shaking his head slightly at his wayward thoughts, Sirius turned his eyes back to the book. He had barely made it halfway through the first chapter – an introduction to the four Hogwarts founders – when his eyes began to close and he fell into a sound sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** Second Chance

**Rating:** T for now, though that may change in the future

**Summary:** Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!

Sirius twitched slightly in his sleep, slowly coming to consciousness. He heard the small sounds of someone moving around him and it took a moment to place exactly where he was and what was going on. Yesterday's events came to mind and he remembered that he was back in Grimmauld Place, which was now Harry's home, and he'd apparently fallen asleep in the library. He groggily opened his eyes a bit, pleased to find that the room he was in was relatively dark, not bursting with morning sunlight. Looking around sleepily, Sirius's eyes landed on what, or rather who, had been the presence he'd felt. His godson sat in the chair opposite him across the chessboard. He had two cups of what appeared to be coffee in his hands and held one out to Sirius. "Good morning," he said, smiling.

"G'morning," Sirius replied as he took the cup, grateful for his godson's thoughtfulness. Morning had never been his favorite time of day. He took a sip of coffee as he slowly remembered yesterday's events. They two men sat in silence for awhile, drinking their coffee.

After several minutes Harry cleared his throat. "So did you sleep well down here?" he asked, an underlying question clearly evident in his voice.

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, I apparently did since I didn't wake up once during the night." He paused, then continued, answering his godson's unspoken question, "I couldn't get to sleep so I just came down to read for a bit and ended up dozing off."

Harry nodded and they lapsed back into a comfortable silence. After awhile, Sirius set down his empty coffee mug, yawned, and stretched his arms out in front of him. Settling back into the chair he spoke, "So what's the plan for today?" He imagined they had quite a bit to settle in regards to the Ministry, getting his finances set up, and obtaining the necessary things like housing and clothing. All of that, however, raised one important question Sirius had neglected to ask the night before. "Wait – I forgot to ask last night but when I came out of the veil and went through the Ministry as Padfoot, the wizards and witches there seemed to know about me being an animagus. What all happened after I disappeared regarding my things and my identity?"

He listened as Harry explained that all of Sirius's possessions, his house, and his money were left to him upon his supposed death. "Pettigrew was one of Voldemort's Death Eaters that died during my seventh year. With him, the proof of your innocence also died. After the final battle, I went to the Ministry and…er, asked them to use Legilimens on me as proof to clear your name." Sirius got the distinct impression that he had done more than just politely ask and wondered just what his usually mild-mannered godson had done to get them to perform the spell. Harry continued before he could ask, "In doing so, they discovered that you were an animagus and added you to their official registry just to have record of it. Of course, the Daily Prophet was incredibly interested in the story of 'Sirius Black, Abandoned Animagus'." Harry grinned while Sirius cringed at the thought of what they might have included in those articles and who they might have gotten a hold of to interview.

As if using Legilimens himself, Harry said, "They managed to get in touch with several of your old, er,_ girlfriends_ I guess you might call them." He couldn't help but laugh at the deep grimace that appeared on his godfather's face. "Anyway, the Ministry publicly cleared your name and told basically the entire story of Pettigrew's betrayal and everything you had gone through and done in the war against Voldemort."

Sirius nodded, taking it all in. Everybody now knew he was an animagus. More importantly, everybody now knew he was innocent and had been all these years. It felt incredibly liberating not only to know he was actually liberated and could safely be seen in public now but also that his friendship with James and Remus and Lily had been cleansed of any blackness that had previously been associated with it. "So now that all that is cleared up and I can officially go outside a free man, what's the plan for today? Or do you have plans already with Ginny?" Sirius asked. He didn't want to intrude on his godson's life and didn't expect that Harry would drop everything just because he was back.

Waving his hand dismissingly, he answered. "I got in touch with Ginny last night and just let her know that there was a bit of business that McGonagall wanted me to take care of."

"That's all I am now? A bit of business to take care of?" Sirius asked, jokingly sounding hurt. Clearing his throat, he continued, "Okay, so what are we going to do today?"

At this, Harry looked a little hesitant. "Well, I'm not sure if you feel ready for it or if you'd rather wait, but I thought we could start letting everyone know that you're back." He watched his godfather for any signs of him not liking the idea.

Sirius knew he was right but he couldn't help the slightly nervous feeling that crept up on him at the thought of re-meeting everyone. Some of them would probably be completely changed from when he last saw them – it had been 7 years after all, and they had all been through things that had changed Sirius himself years ago during the first war against Voldemort. Harry's friends were no longer idealistic kids who thought as long as they were at Hogwarts with Dumbledore nothing would hurt them.

Realizing he hadn't answered Harry yet, Sirius spoke, "We can do that. I'd like to perhaps get myself re-established a bit, at least with Gringott's, figure out where my wand is or whether I need a new one, and buy some clothes and other personal items. You know, get myself a bit more presentable before seeing everyone again."

The rest of the morning passed quietly – Sirius made some eggs and toast for himself and Harry, surprised that he still remembered how to cook. They each took turns showering and Sirius dug through some of his old clothes, finding a simple black shirt and black jeans that worked well enough until he could get to Madam Malkin's. Sirius supposed the first order of business should be getting back to the Ministry of Magic and reinstating himself as a non-dead entity. As they walked through the door, Sirius was quite amazed at the change in the Ministry he hadn't noticed yesterday. There was an air of gaiety that he had never really felt before. Certainly there were people after Voldemort's first apparent downfall that had thought there was reason to celebrate, the death of the most evil wizard ever. But Sirius didn't believe that Voldemort was really gone. When he had gone to the Potters', he was the first person to arrive at the scene and there had been only two dead bodies in the Potters' house that night.

Shaking his head clear of the depressing thoughts, he followed Harry through the giant lobby. The golden fountain of magical brethren still stood in the center and watched as Harry quickly stretched his hand out to the side to light touch the wizard's arm as he passed, never stopping, almost as a passing reverence. A confused look came on his face and he made a mental note to ask Harry about it later. Making their way to the receptionist's desk, where a red-haired, petite woman sat behind an impressive mahogany desk with a fireplace to her right that seemed to have just been plopped down in the middle of the floor, Harry asked for a guest pass to the Minster of Magic's office.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, the Minister generally has a very busy schedule – might I direct you to one of our other many offices?" she said, reaching for a guest identification badge.

"Well, I think the Minister might be interested in seeing us as this is Sirius Black." Harry gestured to his godfather with no further explanation.

The woman immediately turned to Sirius standing beside his godson. Seemingly at a loss of words, her mouth dropped open and she stared at him for a moment before composing herself. "I think this might be a case the Minister would like to personally attend to, if you'll just hold on a moment." She turned toward the fireplace to her right, grabbed a handful of green floo powder, and bent down to stick her head in the flames. They couldn't hear what she was saying but a couple of seconds later she straightened. "The Minister would like to see you up in his office. I'm assuming you know where it is, Mr. Potter?" Apparently deciding that Sirius no longer needed identification, she gestured to the elevator, staring after them. Sirius followed Harry to the lifts, letting out a sigh of relief upon finding themselves entering an empty one.

"I guess that'll be something I have to get used to, huh?" he said.

Harry nodded sympathetically. "Yeah, I'm afraid so. It's rare that I get looks anymore, but it went on for a long time after I started Hogwarts and then again after the war." Sirius was at least glad that his godson could commiserate. Harry continued, "After awhile it gets better, especially if you just act normally and don't give them anything to look at. Which means no showing off for the ladies – you know, things like climbing up a tree and singing of your love or things of the like." Not able to keep a straight face, Harry burst into laughter.

"Oh bugger! That was one time I did that! And just who told you-" Sirius stopped, then exploded once again. "That bloody Daily Prophet! How did they ever find Margeline? It figures she would have told them I did that for her. She always liked a lot of attention." Sirius scowled.

"Which apparently you enjoyed giving," Harry cracked beside him, still heavily chuckling as the lift doors opened at the level of the Minister of Magic's office.

Harry knocked on the heavy wooden door and upon hearing a deep voice say "Come in!", he and Sirius entered. Being used to older men with gray hair generally filling the role as Minister of Magic, Sirius was surprised to see Kingsley Shacklebolt before him. The Minister likewise looked astounded to see him. Harry and Sirius took a seat and began telling Kingsley of Sirius's return from the veil.

An hour later, the three men heartily shook hands and Sirius and Harry left. It was arranged that the Minister would do the necessary paperwork to have Sirius reinstated as "living" and restore his Gringott's account with a small fortune from the Ministry for what Kingsley called "a grave lapse of justice" concerning Sirius being put into Azkaban for murders he didn't commit. Sirius had taken it all in stride, relieving Kingsley of any guilt since he certainly hadn't been one of the wizards that had sent him there years ago. Before leaving, Kingsley gave Sirius a generous handful of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in order to buy any necessary items while his Gringott's account was set up.

"Before you leave, I've got something I think you'll be very happy to have." He gestured for them to follow him out of the office. After going down several long corridors, Kingsley turned and led the way through a door on their right. There was a small man inside sitting at a shiny wooden desk – nothing else occupied the room except a door on the wall to the left. Kingsley leaned over the desk and quietly whispered something to the man, who went through the door on the left and came back a minute later with a long, flat black box. He handed the box to Kingsley, who took it and in turn handed it to Sirius. He looked down at the box, confused for a moment before he realized what the box held. He quickly pulled the top of the box off and grasped his familiar black willow wand with a core of unicorn hair. Picking it up, he flourished his old wand, sending a short shoot of red sparks out of it. "Thanks Kingsley, it's good to have this back." After pocketing his wand – a habit Moody would never be able to break him of no matter the risk to his buttocks - the three men shook hands and Harry and Sirius made their way back to the lifts.

After leaving the Ministry, Harry steered Sirius to the right, back towards the entrance to Diagon Alley. "I think it might be a good idea to get you back to Grimmauld Place while I buy some clothes for you. It'd be best if people read in the Prophet that you're officially back rather than seeing a supposedly-dead Sirius Black wandering around Diagon Alley." Harry murmured to Sirius as they made their way through the sunny street filled with people. After months of being holed up in his mother's house before the veil and now having been 7 years missing, Sirius wanted nothing more than to be out and about around people, but conceded that his godson was probably right. He nodded before bidding Harry goodbye and apparating back home.

Upon finding himself back in the entrance hall of Grimmauld Place, Sirius couldn't help but be drawn back to the pictures lining the wall. A smiled at a picture he had missed earlier – it appeared to be a home game of Quidditch at the Burrow. Harry and most of the Weasley children were hovering on brooms in the yard. It looked like they had just finished a game as Fred and George paused in the middle of batting a bludger each back up into the air to turn to the camera and wave and Ginny was holding the red auaffle under her right arm and also waving at the camera. Bill, Ronnie, and Charlie also paused in their clapping and whooping to wave at Sirius as well. He felt his heart catch in his throat as he looked at Harry, whose hair was messier than ever from the game, holding the golden snitch happily in his hand and grinning at the camera. He had only gotten to see Harry fly a couple of times back when he had to sneak around as Padfoot during his godson's third year. He was pleased to note that it looked like Harry still rode the Firebolt Sirius had gotten him years ago despite the fact that there had to be several newer, faster models out in the time he had been gone. Moving on to the next set of pictures, Sirius took the opportunity of being alone to peruse them more thoroughly. He had a very similar feeling to when he had been getting back to Hogwarts and heard snippets about his godson along the way, having never known what Harry's life ended up being like after losing his parents. It had been strange seeing Harry fly so well in the Quidditch match he had sneaked into without having seen how he learned or to see him sleeping in his Hogwarts bed with the red hangings around him without having been around when he'd first gotten his green-inked Hogwarts letter. It was again such an alien feeling to see in pictures how Harry's life had gone without having been there to see any of it.

He continued his sojourn, pausing again at the portrait of himself. Sighing, he began to slowly climb the stairs, stopping when he reached his old bedroom. He hesitated a moment outside the door before turning the knob to reveal the cobweb-laden room. He stepped inside and flicked on the dim light. Grabbing the nearest shirt thrown on the floor, Sirius climbed atop the bed to reach the light, which he promptly dusted with the old shirt. This allowed a considerable amount of light to fill the room. He got to work on putting away his belongings, getting rid of old clothes, and generally tidying up the room.

After a couple hours of folding pants, hanging up shirts, and reorganizing things into drawers, Sirius's grumbling stomach interrupted his cleaning. He stood, looking around the room now. It would probably be a little bit before he would sleep in here, but he'd made good progress. He left the room, leaving the door open to air it out, and made his way back downstairs to the kitchen. Feeling slightly intrusive, Sirius checked out the fridge, grabbing a few sandwich supplies. He stood at the counter, humming quietly as he made himself a sandwich, then grabbed a bag of chips sitting on the counter and sat down at the table. His thoughts drifted to the talk he and Harry had the night before. He couldn't help the smile that crossed his face as he thought about Harry talking about Ginny. He and Remus had talked long ago about the possibility of them, but his friend had been convinced that Harry and Hermione would eventually end up together, at least for a little while. Sirius remembered the conversation as if he had been sitting here last night with Remus instead of Harry.

"Harry and Hermione are just more in tune with each other than she and Ron," Remus had said. Sirius had forgotten that the flip side of the conversation revolved around whether Hermione and Ron would in turn end up together.

"Moony, I'm telling you, Harry could never be with someone who hates flying as much as Hermione does. It'd never work." Sirius had countered.

"Well, same goes for Ron – he's more obsessed with Quidditch than Harry is! I don't know why you think Ron and Hermione would be able to make it work when Harry and Hermione wouldn't. Ron has a lot more of a temper than Harry and you know they'd get into rows all the time."

"But that's the passion of it – they fight but the making up afterwards makes it all worth it." Sirius waggled his eyebrows at his friend. "Plus, there's the issue of how obvious it is Ginny is in love with Harry. Remember that singing love-gram or whatever it was that she sent him?"

Moony crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine, I will give you that – she is definitely enamored with him." Sirius "hmphed" triumphantly. Remus held a hand up and continued, "But there is nothing to show that he feels in any measure the same way."

"Well of course not! He's a bloody 15 year old! Right now he's too busy looking at older girls, like that Cho or whoever. He's too adolescent to be looking at suitable girls. But you mark my words, when he gets out of that phase, he will see Ginny in a whole new light." Sirius nodded as if that was the end of the conversation.

Sirius was startled from his thoughts by a slightly familiar, distinctly female voice calling from what sounded like the library. "Harry, are you home?"

Standing quickly from his seat, Sirius banged his thigh on the table, letting out a muffled cry as he tried to keep quiet. Whoever was in the house, however, had heard and he listened as the voice got closer to the kitchen.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

Trying to keep silent, Sirius looked wildly around at possible hiding places in the kitchen and for a brief moment had the ridiculous idea of hiding under the table. Deciding instead on the pantry as the best place to hide, he had just begun to turn around when the door to the kitchen swung open to reveal a girl – now young woman – he hadn't seen for 7 years. She stood before him in slim fitting blue jeans, a casual white blouse, and trainers. Her light brown, curly hair was pushed off her face and secured into a bun. Her brown eyes widened for a split second as she saw the man before her, then narrowed as she quickly pulled her wand from her back pocket and locked it on him.

Not knowing what else to do – and feeling somewhat like he was in one of those silly Muggle law enforcement shows – he held up his hands, staring unblinkingly at the woman before him and spoke. "I can explain everything Hermione."


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** Second Chance

**Rating:** T for now, though that may change in the future

**Summary:** Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!

**Author's Note:** Thanks for the reviews everyone! I'm sorry this is a little late – I've recently become an aunt twice and have had a lot going on! Hope everyone likes this chapter!

When Harry apparated home to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, he found himself in silence for a moment before he heard the slightly strangled sounding voice of his godfather come from the vicinity of the kitchen.

"Harry, is that you? Would you mind coming to the kitchen for a moment?"

Feeling slightly confused, Harry dropped the bags from Madam Malkin's and other various wizarding shops in Diagon Alley and made his way to the kitchen. He was not prepared for the sight before him upon opening the door. For a moment he stood frozen, taking in Hermione standing just inside the door, her wand pointed at Sirius, unwavering. He suddenly felt he knew just how McGonagall had felt when Sirius had revealed himself to Harry in her office at Hogwarts.

While Hermione was busy keeping her wand locked on his godfather, Sirius was looking gratefully at Harry, clearly in no position to make any sudden movements himself. "Hello there, Harry," he said as though he wasn't being held at wand point by one of his godson's best friends. "Care to explain to Hermione how it is I happen to be here, alive, in your kitchen before she does the furnunculus curse on me, or worse?"

"Er, right," Harry said quickly, stepping around Hermione to place himself between her and Sirius. "Hermione, it's alright. This really is Sirius."

She didn't say anything, but Hermione lowered her wand to her side, her eyes darting between Harry and Sirius, wanting to trust her friend but not trusting the fact that a supposedly deceased man was standing before her.

Sirius silently sighed in relief that the imminent danger of the most clever witch of her age hexing his bollocks off had passed. He didn't doubt Hermione would do it either. He thought it best to stay silent until Harry had at least assured Hermione of the reality that the fact that Sirius was back was possible and not some hoax of remaining Death Eaters who had it out for the trio. He could see what Remus had been talking about regarding Hermione and Harry's connection. Sirius doubted that had it been anybody else trying to convince her that Sirius was who he said he was, she wouldn't have charmed their arse off. But upon Harry vouching for Sirius's identity, she seemed to decide that that was enough proof for her and agreed to sit down with them. Sirius suggested they take what he supposed would be a rather lengthy conversation into the library. It was definitely his favorite room of the house and he figured Hermione might feel a little less peaky being surrounded by her books. The three of them made their way to the cozy room, where Sirius offered Hermione and Harry the seats before the fireplace, choosing to stand by the bookshelf nearest Harry. Hermione took her seat, her eyes fixed on Sirius. He couldn't help but wonder just what was going through her mind at that moment. Every now and then her eyes would dart over to Harry only to return right back to Sirius, almost as if she couldn't help it. For the first time ever since meeting the witch, he found himself growing self-conscious, wishing he might have put on a better shirt. He coughed lightly in the semi-awkward silence that enveloped the room, hoping to prompt Harry into explaining the situation. Harry caught his eye and, apparently getting the message, spoke. "So I expect you're really curious about why Sirius is here," he said to Hermione. Upon her affirmation, he went into how Sirius had emerged the veil and the details of their morning in Diagon Alley. She let him talk without once interrupting or asking additional questions. She had apparently developed a bit of patience in the time he had been gone he thought amusedly.

"So now we're working on getting Sirius set up among the living again before we tell everyone what's going on," Harry concluded. "I thought I might see if I could arrange to have everyone together here tomorrow evening to tell them."

Hermione nodded at the idea, appearing to take all the information she had just received in stride. He wondered more than ever what she was feeling about it all. Was she happy he was back, and if so, was it simply for Harry and the return of his godfather? Or did she not feel one way or another, just accepting of the fact that Sirius was once again in their lives?

After talking a few more minutes about the get together planned for the follow evening, during which time Sirius's mind was occupied with further questions regarding Hermione, Harry and Hermione stood, bidding each other goodbye. After hugging Harry, she turned to Sirius, who stood silently before her, unsure of what the proper move was. Surprisingly, she stepped forward to hug him. Sirius noted that she rose slightly, standing on her tiptoes in order to wrap her arms around his shoulders. His hands naturally went to her wait, pausing of their own accord on each side of her body before continuing to wrap his arms completely around her.

"I'm so glad you're back, Sirius," she said softly in his left ear, before slowly retracting from the hug, kissing him lightly on the check as she did so. Once disentangled, Hermione turned swiftly toward the fireplace, grabbed a handful of floo powder, and was gone quickly thereafter. Sirius stared for a moment at the green flames that were rapidly dying down, feeling possibly more shaken than he had yet since coming out of the veil. When he finally looked away from the fireplace, he found a pair of green eyes watching him with a shrewd expression.

"What are you on about?" Sirius asked.

Smiling slightly, Harry shrugged. "Nothing," he said simply, but something his expression told Sirius that it wasn't nothing.

"Oh bugger off," Sirius said. "Before Hermione assaulted me, I was just about to eat a sandwich – do you want one?" he asked, eager to move on to a different subject.

Nodding, Harry followed Sirius to the kitchen.

* * *

Hermione dusted herself off as she stepped out of her fireplace, having just left Harry's. She'd been so preoccupied she'd nearly missed the grate for her house. Brushing excess soot off her clothes, she stepped around her coffee table and sat down on the couch. She gazed unseeingly at the fireplace before her, going over all the information she had just received. Sirius, a man she thought she'd never see again, was indeed back. Part of her mind still felt numb to the idea, as if the next time she went to 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry would still live there alone and Sirius would again be gone. But the fact was that he _was_ back. She'd be lying if she said she didn't feel a bit of a thrill upon seeing him again. How many nights had she and Ginny laid awake at night the summer before Hermione's fifth year, talking about Harry's handsome godfather? She was too old to have that same girly crush on him but couldn't wait until tomorrow night when Ginny would find out and they could talk about it. She couldn't help but wonder if Ginny would him even more attractive than they had back when they were in Hogwarts, as Hermione herself did. She felt warmth come to her cheeks and she knew she was blushing as she thought about the kiss she'd given him. She hadn't the faintest idea what had come over her to make her do that.

"Oh for Merlin's sake," Hermione said aloud to the empty house, getting up off the couch. "You'd think I was back at Hogwarts."

* * *

Before Sirius knew it, it was evening again and time for dinner. He'd made a lot more headway on his bedroom and thought that maybe tomorrow he'd be able to get settled in. Last night he and Harry had discussed the arrangements of the house and for now were content to both live there, until, Sirius supposed, Harry proposed to Ginny.

As they sat down to the meal of beef stroganoff Harry had prepared, the latter said, "So I've gotten a hold of everyone about tomorrow and they've all said they're free, so we'll plan on your 'coming out party' happening then. Everyone was very curious about what I could possibly have going on that they'd all need to be here."

"And just who is included when you say 'everyone'?" Sirius asked, taking a forkful of egg noodles.

"Well, there's the Weasleys, which includes Fleur and probably Ron's girlfriend, Holly." Harry didn't elaborate on his best friend's girlfriend and Sirius got the impression that Harry didn't have much good to say about her.

"You never mentioned that Ron was dating somebody else," he stated, hoping to steer Harry in a certain direction. "What's the bird like?" Unlike with his own significant other, Harry apparently didn't take any offense to Sirius referring to Holly in that manner.

Harry shrugged, seeming to not want to speak negatively about his friend's girlfriend. "I dunno – she and Ron just don't seem to be…" Harry hesitated, searching for the right way to phrase it. "They just don't seem to be best suited for each other." He nodded once, apparently deciding that was the best way to put it, and took a bite of food.

"Ah," was all Sirius said, now keen to meet the young woman who had apparently rubbed Harry the wrong way. He paused for a moment, hesitating before continuing. "Does Hermione feel the same as you?" he asked, not sure why he was eager to know what Hermione thought of Ron's new love interest. He chalked it up to making conversation.

Harry again shrugged. "She basically thinks the same thing I think. We don't really talk about Ron very much." Upon seeing the surprised expression on Sirius's face, he continued, "It's not that they don't get along – just more that that's a chapter they'd like to put behind them."

"By chapter, you mean the time they dated?" Sirius asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. Seeing Harry's answering nod, he asked another question, "Why did they not work out? I always thought they'd end up together." He thought again of the conversation he and Remus had years ago.

"They might have if everything in seventh year hadn't happened. Granted, their relationship was always a little up and down, but that's just the way they were. I think something that ultimately changed Hermione's mind about Ron was when he left us when we were searching for the Horcruxes."

Sirius had been in the middle of raising his glass of butterbeer to his lips but upon hearing that, slammed it back down on the table, sloshing some of the drink over the sides. "Ron left you?" He was honestly shocked to hear it. He knew that Ron had the tendency to be a bit of a right arse sometimes but he'd always thought Ron very loyal.

"He was pretty fed up with getting nowhere. He thought I knew exactly where I was going and how to find the horcruxes. I think he wasn't very prepared for everything we encountered on our search." It was clear that Harry was pretty well over it by the calm way he spoke about it, but Sirius was nowhere near that tranquil. Seeing as how Ron and Harry appeared to still be friends, he tried to control his anger. But not only had Ron left his supposed best friend, he'd also left his girlfriend at the time, leaving them to find the Horcruxes and to fend for themselves against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Keeping his voice even, Sirius said, "I can't say I blame Hermione for being shot of him then."

"Me neither," Harry agreed. "Like I said, they're well moved on from it, but it's a time that they don't really like to look back on, for many reasons. I think Hermione looked at Ron very differently after that."

Sirius completely understood – he couldn't help but feel his opinion of Ron changing for the worst as well. But Harry and Hermione could get over it, he'd try his best to as well. He was glad, though, that he had a day to work on that before having to see him again. Before he could dwell further on his misgivings towards Ron, Harry continued detailing the guest list for tomorrow.

"I've also invited Professor McGonagall, even though she already knows, Kingsley, Moody, Luna, and Neville." Sirius was glad to hear Harry had invited the Longbottom boy – he'd always had a soft spot for Frank and Alice's son. "Andromeda will also be coming…" Harry trailed off at this. After a moment of silence, he said, "There's something else I forgot to tell you about Remus." He watched his godfather, as if making sure he could handle hearing about his former friend. Sirius nodded, urging Harry to continue. "Remus and Tonks had a baby before the final battle; his name is Teddy"

Sirius felt as though his mind had gone entirely numb. He and Remus had talked a few times about the possibility of the werewolf having children, but it had always pretty swiftly been dismissed by his friend, who had always been fearful of his offspring inheriting his lycanthropy. He wanted to be happy that his friend had ended up having a child, but couldn't in the face of the fact that the kid had suffered much the same fate that his own godson had of his parents being killed young.

As if he knew what Sirius was thinking, Harry said, "After the final battle, Teddy was adopted by Andromeda, so she has been raising him. He'll also be here tomorrow." At that, Sirius felt himself perk up considerably. Andromeda was one of the only other family members he had liked, and he knew that she was a good parent for Teddy. He felt even better upon hearing that Harry himself had been named godfather. It was good to know that Teddy wasn't growing up the same way that Harry'd had to grow up.

Having finished their dinner and drinks, Sirius and Harry went up to the library to play some wizard's chess and talk about the plans for the next day.

Meanwhile, back at her apartment Hermione had been unable to sweep Sirius from her mind and rather than fighting it, she spent the day perusing her old photo albums and diaries from third year through fifth year. She still hadn't completely grasped the fact that Sirius had indeed returned and was here to stay. A smile had been permanently fixed on her mouth from the time of leaving Harry's, now probably again Sirius's, house. The smile was only slightly dimmed by the blush that started every time she'd thought of the kiss she'd given him just before leaving. It hadn't been intentional. She'd meant to hug him and then it had just felt natural in that moment to lay a soft kiss on his cheek – completely friendly of course. She was no longer 15 years old and swooning over every sweep of his hair. Luckily, he'd had no idea at the time that practically every night she'd gone up to her room shared with Ginny and the two of them gushed over him. In truth, Ginny had fawned less so over Sirius as she had Harry, but they had both definitely been slightly enamored by Harry's godfather. If she was being completely truthful, her infatuation had started the night they had used the Time Turner to free him, the moment he had told her she was the brightest witch of her age. She'd heard that numerous times in her three years at Hogwarts, but Sirius had been the first person to sound completely genuine in the assessment and also actually impressed. Many people had said just in acknowledgement that she was a bright witch but he had said it as if he was truly pleasantly surprised that a witch her age could do as much as she could. She hadn't let the comment go to her head, either, continuing to practice so that she could maintain that status with Harry's godfather.

Hugging herself, Hermione stood from her couch and silently walked to the kitchen. She was in the middle of pouring herself a glass of wine when she heard a whooshing sound come from her living room, followed by a deep male voice.

"Hermione, are you here?"

The wine bottle she was holding tipped slightly, pouring a much more generous amount in her stemmed glass than she had intended. She quickly right herself and walked to the living room. She stopped in the doorway, taking in the man who was now standing in her living room.

"Sirius?"

He was standing beside her coffee table, having just stepped out of the fireplace where the green flames were slowly fading. Upon hearing her voice, he looked up and smiled. She in turn looked at the coffee table he had just been looking at and upon noticing the open diary that was sitting on top of the pile of photo albums and other journals, she quickly made her way across the room, stooping to swiftly close the diary and gather the various books to deposit them on her desk in the corner, away from Sirius's gaze.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this – I was just hoping to give Harry a little time alone. He's been with me since we got back and I'd imagine Ginny's not too happy about that. And since you're practically the only other person who knows I'm alive besides McGonagall" – at this he made a deep grimace – "I was hoping you wouldn't mind me popping over for a bit." He was watching her, as if gauging her reaction to him being here.

Hermione hadn't drunk any of the wine she'd poured herself, but her body suddenly felt as if she had, thrumming slightly. "Of course I don't mind. I actually just poured myself a glass of wine – would you like one as well?"

He nodded and Hermione turned back to the kitchen. Her palms felt sweaty and she took a moment to brush them on the front of her pants before taking another wine glass from the cabinet for Sirius. She felt inexplicably nervous as the thought occurred to her that she had never drank wine, or alcohol or any kind, in front of Sirius before. It felt strange to actually be an adult around him. Shaking the anxious thoughts from her mind, she grabbed the two glasses of wine she'd poured and returned to the living room, where Sirius was now sitting on the far end of the sofa. She handed him his wine and sat at the opposite end. They sat for a few moments in silence before Sirius spoke.

"So what all have you been up to in the past 7 years?" he cracked, as if asking what she'd done this afternoon rather than in the last almost-decade.

"Oh, you know, same old, same old," she answered with a smile and a dismissive wave of her hand, adopting the same blasé attitude.

Sirius looked startled for a moment, as if he hadn't expected her to play along, then grinned. He took another sip of wine, then asked again more seriously, "But seriously, what are you doing now?" He took another drink, gazing at her.

"Well, I work for the Ministry of Magic now in the Regulation and Classification of Magical Creatures office."

"So your work in _spew_ is finally coming to fruition?" Sirius asked, looking innocently at her.

"For the last time, it is not _spew_! It is S-P-E-W; Society for the-"

"—Promotion of Elfish Welfare," Sirius finished. "I know."

Hermione couldn't help but feel a little flattered in spite of her annoyance at that fact that Sirius actually knew what S.P.E.W. stood for. Shaking her head slightly – at which she missed the questioning look Sirius gave her – she continued. "I'm trying to decide what I want to move on to from there. I don't want to stay forever in the Magical Creatures office just doing classification. I've been thinking about the Department of Magical Law Enforcement or possibly working with Magical Maladies at St. Mungo's. It's all pretty up in the air right now though. I've gotten a couple requests to join the Department of Mysteries, which I struggled with for some time. I think I could help out a lot down there, but honestly, I don't think I ever want to go back there." She couldn't help the shudder that passed through her.

Sirius nodded understandingly and she felt encouraged to go on. "I was really torn though. I kept thinking of what we saw while we were down there – prophecies…_real _prophecies, which I had always thought was an oxymoron until then. Or being able to see time – it makes my thoughts race just to remember that we actually saw _time_ in physical form. Things like that make me ache to go work there, but I just don't think I could get over the night we were there. But maybe after enough time has passed I'll consider it."

They talked awhile longer about Hermione's life in the time Sirius had been gone, mainly light topics that were easy to converse about. They spoke for some time about Harry and Ginny, and Hermione shared several funny stories of some of the things each of them had done to get the other's attention. They had lapsed into silence again when Sirius stretched and turned his head to read the clock Hermione had on the wall.

"It's getting pretty late – I should get going. Hopefully Harry and Ginny are done with whatever they've been doing in the time I've been gone." He jokingly grimaced. "Thanks again for letting me invite myself in. It was really nice talking to you and catching up a bit," he said as he stood and made his way around the coffee table to the fireplace.

Hermione smiled and followed him. "You're more than welcome anytime you'd like to get out of Grimmauld Place."

At this, Sirius suddenly perked. "I forgot to thank you for getting my mother's portrait down!" he said, seeming extremely grateful. "Harry said you did the charm work with that – I'm very impressed."

Not able to help the blush that started to spread over her cheeks, she shook her head dismissively. "It was actually a fun challenge. I'm glad it hopefully makes things a bit more tolerable now that you're back."

"It definitely does. So thanks again for that and for having me." As he did at Grimmauld Place, he leaned towards Hermione to give her a parting hug. Determined not to accidently snog him as she had last time, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders briefly before attempting to step back out of the embrace. But Sirius arms didn't slacken at all and after a few moments, he pulled back enough for his lips to find her cheek, gently laying a kiss there. He then leaned back but keeping his hands on her shoulders gave them a quick squeeze before turning to the fireplace and leaving.


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** Second Chance

**Rating:** T for now, though that may change in the future

**Summary:** Sirius returns from the veil years later to find everything completely different, including himself and a certain bookworm who was 15 when he left.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter and am doing this just for fun!

**Author's Note:** Thank you so much for the reviews - I've gotten some really awesome ones and they are very much appreciated! I'll try to update with the next chapter soon!

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Sirius apparated across the street from Grimmauld Place, just in case Ginny was still inside, and looked for a moment at the house in which he had grown up. Even though he was a wizard, he was still slightly amazed that the house could be so changed on the inside but still look just as forbidding as it ever had, betraying no hint of the incredible makeover within. He made his way across the street and up the steps, silently opening the door at the landing. He peeked his head inside and listened carefully for any sounds that might give him a clue that there were two people in the house instead of one. Everything was quiet but he didn't want to take any chances – snogging wasn't exactly a boisterous, loud pastime; he quietly shut the door behind him and morphed into his canine form. He figured that even if Ginny was still in the house and saw him, Harry might be able to convince her that he had gotten a big black dog that looked exactly like his godfather's animagus form. Sirius winced mentally – he hoped for the both of them that Ginny had already departed. He was nearing the kitchen door, having had heard sounds of tinkling china coming from within, when the door suddenly opened and Harry stepped into the hall unaccompanied.

A surprised look came over his face when he saw the black dog before him, then relaxed back to a smile. "It's alright, she's gone. She left about half an hour ago." At those words, Sirius quickly changed back to his human form.

"Did you have a good time?" Sirius asked, hoping that if they had been snogging, his godson wouldn't go into detail. He followed Harry down the hall and into the library.

"Yeah, I think it was good I had her over. She was starting to get a little suspicious and was a little shirty with me when she first got here. I think she's started to pick up that the business I had to attend to with Professor McGonagall wasn't the usual." He snickered. "She doesn't like being left out of things."

Sirius could definitely see that about the redhead. He'd always felt a little sorry for her being not only the youngest and left behind because of that, but also being the only female daughter of the Weasleys, and often being told that she couldn't do things because of it.

Harry's voice broke into his thoughts. "How was Hermione's?" he took a sip of his tea and watched his godfather over the cup, eyebrow raised.

"It was nice." He paused, unsure if he should say what he was thinking. Harry already seemed to be getting some ideas and Sirius didn't really want to encourage them. "She's…." he paused, searching for just the right word that would explain his thoughts but not provoke his godson's anymore. "Very different," he finished. Harry nodded, his expression instantly turning more serious.

"She's definitely less uptight." Sirius said.

Harry nodded once again. "I think during our last year in school and the war, she got a look at things in pretty harsh light." He didn't explain further and Sirius didn't need to ask. After seeing Lily and James lying dead in their house, knowing they had been sold out by a best mate, he'd seen everything through the same plain, cruel glasses Hermione probably had.

Apparently seeing his godfather's dark expression, Harry changed the subject. "So do we want to bang out some of the details for tomorrow and your big reveal?" They talked for over an hour about the plan for the next night and after coming up with a sufficient way to tell everyone – Sirius was hoping to get through the night without having a wand pointed at him threateningly - they both stood, ready for bed.

The morning Sirius woke in what he hoped was his last night in one of the guest rooms. After breakfasting with Harry, who came down just a few minutes after Sirius and left shortly after for work, he returned to his almost-finished room to ensure he'd be able to sleep there tonight. _Assuming I'm still alive and no one has hexed me into St. Mungo's_,Sirius thought.

Upon getting the room cleaned and arranged, Sirius pulled out his wand to do the final decorating touches. After charming the walls a grey-blue, drawing up a new comforter, and dotting the ceiling with flickering stars, Sirius stepped back to the doorway to take a look at the room. He smiled, pleased that his room now fit in with the rest of the remodeled house.

Sirius spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between reading, playing chess against himself, and nervously pacing back and forth across the library. By the time Harry got home at 5:00, Sirius had showered, spent an hour working to get his hair perfect, and was once again pacing in the library. Harry changed out of his work robes and the two of them went down to the kitchen to prepare the meal for that night. Sirius took note of how proficient Harry seemed to be at charming his way around the kitchen and smiled knowingly to himself – it had also been necessary when he himself had graduated Hogwarts to sufficiently learn the various spells to quickly whip up a meal or wash the dishes as his lady friend for the night never seemed to stick around the next morning to make him breakfast. They finished just as the doorbell rang and Harry quickly shooed Sirius out of the kitchen and back to his bedroom to wait until Harry came to get him. They had briefly entertained the thought of the library being his hiding place but had decided the chance of somebody walking in was too great, especially since with so many people in the house it would be impossible to monitor everyone and stop them before they made their way to the quiet room.

Up in his bedroom, Sirius sat on the dark brown comforter that covered his bed, listening to the noise down below. He heard the voice of Mrs. Weasley, ever-prompt, and the lower voice Mr. Weasley float up the stairs. He'd only ever known Arthur and Molly surrounded by their many children – as well as quasi-adopted Harry and Hermione - and he couldn't help but wonder what their lives must now be like living in the Burrow - for he couldn't imagine them living anywhere else – just the two of them. He imagined that her clock hung in a very central location of the house where she would often see it. Sirius didn't have much time to ruminate on what their day-to-day lives were like before the doorbell rang again and he heard who he thought might be the eldest Weasley boys.

It felt strange to be up here listening to everything going on below – and he couldn't help but wince in anticipation of his mother's screeches every time the doorbell announced a new visitor. Most everyone had arrived and he hardly flinched when the doorbell rang with the last guest. Sirius heard Hermione greet Harry and listened as they made their way to the dining room where everyone else was gathered chatting. He could no longer make out any words, rather just the muffled tones of voices. It wasn't long, although felt like much longer to Sirius, until he heard Harry's feet on the steps, coming to get him. He stood a little straighter and glanced one last time in the mirror before his door opened and his godson's head peeked around the door.

"You ready?" Harry asked, excitedly grinning.

Sirius let out a big breath. "I guess so," he said heavily, shutting the door as he followed Harry down the steps. The muted voices he'd heard upstairs grew steadily until they were right outside the door to the dining room. He looked over at his godson, a bit unnerved by just how calm Harry looked, although hoping to absorb some of his courage. He straightened his shoulders, mentally telling himself that these were old friends, a few of whom already knew what was about to be revealed. If he was being truthful, he was most afraid of the reaction of the Weasley family – he knew more than just Mrs. Weasley had a soft spot in her heart for Harry and he was actually quite nervous that the lot of them might think he was an imposter who was out to hurt their friend and quasi-adopted son and brother, not to mention what Ginny Weasley might do thinking that someone was out to get her boyfriend. He pushed those thoughts from his mind as Harry reached forward to swing open the door.

The boisterous sounds of people in mid-conversation reached them full on before quickly dying out as people in the room turned to face the two men who now stood in the doorway. Sirius stood slightly behind Harry, trusting that no one would take aim at him with the accompanied risk of cursing Harry. In a matter of seconds the room had fallen completely silent and Sirius took a look around, noting the smiles of Kingsley, Minerva, and Hermione. For a few moments no one spoke, then a soft but very steady voice interrupted the quiet. Sirius's eyes landed on Ginny.

"Harry, what's going on?" she asked, not even looking at Sirius anymore, her eyes trained on Harry.

"Yeah, would you mind telling us what the bloody hell he is doing here?" Sirius almost snorted – he probably wouldn't have even needed to hear the voice that sentence came from to know it was Ron. The fact that Mrs. Weasley didn't even reprimand him for cursing spoke volumes about how shocked she must have been.

Sirius felt rather than heard Harry take a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sorry to spring this on you all but we thought it might be best if you saw for yourselves that Sirius is back from the veil." He raised a hand as he saw Ron open his mouth to most likely argue, "I know it's hard to believe – you can ask Professor McGonagall how suspicious I was when I first saw him – but this actually is Sirius." He paused and Sirius was glad Harry hadn't moved from his spot because at that moment he was getting distrustful glares from several of the people gathered, including Ginny and Mrs. Weasley and, surprisingly, Arthur. Apparently taking note, Harry continued, "If you don't trust me, you can ask Kingsley, who already saw Sirius yesterday and has done everything needed to prove this is really Sirius." At that, Kingsley nodded in reassurance that he had indeed verified Sirius's identity.

Seeing that many of those gathered before him still wore looks of doubt, Harry gestured to the witch standing nearest him on the left. "Well if you don't trust Kingsley, I think you'll at least trust Hermione, who found out yesterday about him." At these words, several looks of doubt turned to surprise as everyone turned to Hermione.

"Hermione, you bint, how come you didn't tell me?" Ron asked, seeming surprised that their friendship hadn't carried enough weight for her divulge her secret. This time at her son's cursing, Molly did speak up.

"Ron, watching your mouth! If I catch you saying those words again, I'll clean your mouth out with Frog Spawn Soap." With Hermione's acknowledgment apparently being enough for her, she stepped forward toward Sirius with her arms outstretched. "Sirius, we're so glad to have you back." Wrapping her arms around him, she hugged him for a few seconds before letting go and pulling back, smiling. A smile immediately came to his face and he looked at her. Things with Molly hadn't been the most peaceful before he'd gone through the veil but it seemed with her quickly embracing his return that all was mended and they could start fresh.

Molly's hug seemed to take a lot of the tension out of the room and before long, Arthur, Charlie, and Bill had all come up to shake hands and congratulate him on his return. Behind them was Ron, who gave Sirius a brief hug. Sirius had always liked Ron and valued him as a good friend of Harry's, but he couldn't help but retain some coldness towards the redhead after hearing what had happened on the search for Horcruxes.

Ron stepped aside and put his arm around the petite blonde woman next to him who instantly reminded Sirius of Rita Skeeter. "Sirius, this is my girlfriend, Holly Brewston. Holly, this is Sirius." Ron gestured between the two of them.

Holly stepped forward, lightly placing her hand in Sirius's. "I feel like I already know you!" she exclaimed before adopting a pouting expression with her berry-glossed lips. "I just can't believe what they put you through!"

"Er, yeah. It's pretty terrible," Sirius said, wanting nothing so much as to escape the hand clutching him with fuchsia-painted nails that looked like talons. He looked around the room, hoping to catch Harry's eye. When he finally did, during which time Holly's claws maintained a firm grip on his hand, he was relieved that Harry seemed to understand what Sirius wanted. He made his way over to the trio and put his hand on Sirius's forearm.

"Sirius, I've got someone who is very anxious to meet you," he said, lightly pulling on his arm. Holly finally let go, bidding him goodbye as Harry guided Sirius to the far side of the room.

"There is actually someone you need to meet," Sirius barely heard Harry say over his shoulder as they maneuvered through the packed, loud dining room. When they came to a stop, it was from a gray-haired woman Sirius knew very well and a young boy Sirius didn't know at all but could guess who he was, or rather, whose son he was.

"Hello Sirius," Androma said with a big smile before reaching up to give him a hug and kiss on the cheek. It had been years since he'd seen the witch and he could see that the years of struggling through the war, losing a daughter and a son-in-law, and raising a young boy had taken its toll, though she still looked happy and vivacious as she always did.

"Andromeda, it's great to see you, old girl," he teased her in the easy, familiar way they had for years.

"You too, Sirius, though I have to say I hardly recognized you – that veil must have sped up time and aged you 15 years!" she looked at Sirius in fake shock before grinning. "Actually," she continued. "You look rather good. You don't even look 40 years old, let alone the age you should be by now," she finished seriously.

This caused Harry to eye Sirius more critically. "You know, you're right Andromeda. You definitely don't look seven years older, Sirius. Hermione, come here!" he called over to the brunette, who quickly said goodbye to Neville and trod over. After Harry had explained what they were discussing, she looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Well, maybe the veil keeps those who go in it in some kind of suspended time – or it's a place where time essentially doesn't exist," she added quickly upon seeing Harry's slightly dumbfounded expression. "So basically that would mean Sirius is the age he was when he went in."

"So you're saying I'm 37 years old?" Sirius asked. "That's bloody unbelievable."

"Well, I don't know for sure. When I get to work on Monday, I can do some reading and see if I find anything about it or if I can get in touch with Hornick in the Department of Mysteries to see if he knows," she responded, her voice getting more distant as the thoughts of her plan of research on the veil took form in her mind.

Seeing this, Sirius turned back to Andromeda. "And who is this fellow?" he asked, gesturing to the small boy standing near her.

Turning slightly, Androma slid her arm around the slim boy's shoulders, moving him forward a bit. "Sirius, this is Teddy." She glanced at Sirius quickly, as if to ask whether he knew whose son this was. Upon seeing his small answering nod, she continued, "Teddy, this is Sirius Black – he is Harry's godfather and was your dad's best friend." It pained Sirius to hear her refer to their friendship in the past tense, but he shook it off.

"Well, mate, I can see you take after your mother, you must be a Metamorphmagus," Sirius said, noting the boy's unnatural shade of slate blue hair.

The boy absently reached up to his hair, then smiled shyly at the man before him. "Hello, Mr. Black," he said politely, and Sirius saw that he got his manner from his father.

"Please call me Sirius," he responded warmly. "You know, I was your mom's cousin and your dad's friend at Hogwarts."

Teddy nodded, "I know. Grandma told me some stories about when dad was in school."

"Oh did she?" Sirius looked expectantly at Andromeda.

"Yeah. Is it true that you once set dung bombs off in all of the bathrooms in the school at the same?"

As Harry began to laugh, Sirius coughed wildly, trying to find a way to change the subject. "Er…yeah we did – you're a couple years away from getting your letter for Hogwarts, aren't you?"

Harry was still chuckling with Andromeda when Teddy answered that he would attend Hogwarts in two years. A moment later Sirius felt a tap on his shoulder and turned as Harry led Andromeda and Teddy toward Arthur and Molly.

"H-hello, sir," the tall, brown-haired boy before him said quietly. "I don't think you know me, but my name is Neville Longbottom."

Sirius nodded instantly. "Neville! We've never met but I certainly know who you are. Harry's told me a lot about you and you were with him when he went to the Department of Mysteries the night I went into the veil, right?"

Neville nodded, smiling. He appeared happy at the fact that Sirius actually did know who he was.

Sirius continued, "I also knew your parents. Frank and Alice were two of the nicest people I knew and two of the bravest in the Order as well. I never got to thank you for everything you did and faced for Harry and tell you that your parents would be very proud to have you for a son." Sirius wasn't normally this straightforward but felt he needed to thank the boy who had a part in keeping Harry alive that night and the night of the final battle. He knew he'd done the right thing when he saw Neville flush in appreciative embarrassment at his words before moving aside to reveal a petite, white-blonde-haired girl with radish earrings standing just behind him.

"I also wanted to introduce you to my fiancée, Luna Lovegood. She was also in the Department of Mysteries that night." It was clear Neville was quite proud.

She stepped forward and in a wispy, faraway voice said, "Hello, Mr. Black. It's quite a pleasure to meet you as I've been wanting for a long time to ask you about any problems you might have encountered with warsnaps in your time as a dog."

Sirius looked quickly at Neville, who shrugged and gave a small smile. "Er, I don't believe I've encountered that particular problem," he replied. "It's nice to meet you, Luna. I want to thank you too for being there for Harry when he needed you, especially that night." She smiled peacefully in return before Harry's voice broke through the crowd announcing that dinner was going to be served. Everyone took their seats with Harry instructing Sirius to sit at the head of the table. Soon everyone was eating the delicious meal and talking with their neighbor.

Sirius looked around the rather large table at the group that had gathered. He was extremely grateful to everyone around him for filling in in their own personal ways as family for Harry, especially since he himself hadn't been able to the past 7 years. As his eyes roved over the guests, his gaze was caught by Hermione and Ginny sitting next to each other to his right. It was clear that the fact that Hermione and Ron hadn't ended up together had resulted in no love lost between Hermione and Ginny. The girls were laughing together in the corner and it was obvious to Sirius that they were probably each other's best friends.

He'd also seen Hermione making the rounds earlier, chatting with George and Charlie Weasley, Neville, and Andromeda and Teddy. Sirius almost chuckled as he thought of the clearly adoring look that had come over Teddy's face as Hermione had talked with him and his grandmother. Not that he could blame the bloke. He couldn't help but wonder if the other men Hermione had talked to that night were as taken with her as Teddy seemed to be. As if sensing his gaze and thoughts, Hermione looked up at that moment, catching Sirius's eye. She smiled at him and in turn he raised his glass and tipped it in her direction with a smile. She held his gaze a moment longer before glancing back down at her plate and returning to her conversation with Ginny. Not for the first, or last, time, Sirius wondered what thoughts swirled in her head.


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Second Chance

Rating: T for now, though this could change

A/N: Thank you for the reviews! I'm sorry for the paragraphs being hard to read – I usually don't like to have a lot of short paragraphs but for the sake of your eyes, I will try to make the paragraphs a bit shorter! Hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

Disclaimer: This chapter contains some excerpts from the books, which belong to J.K. Rowling and are merely being used for accuracy in my story. All characters also belong to the amazing JKR.

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As Sirius laid in bed that night, his thoughts raced with everyone he had been introduced and re-introduced to at the dinner in his honor. It was great to see those he had known before from the order – he hadn't realized how much he had enjoyed Arthur Weasley's company and his slightly ridiculous stories about the muggle contraptions he was currently tampering with. The irony wasn't lost on Sirius that Arthur's employ had been in the Ministry of Magic's Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department.

Even more surprising to Sirius than missing Arthur was the fact that he had indeed missed Molly. In the time before and during Harry's fifth year, she had been a constant source of irritation and frustration for him, almost as much as Snape. He knew that her intentions were undeniably good but her insistence on playing parent for Harry had never failed to aggravate him. His mind wandered to one heated argument that particularly stood out in his memory.

_It was the first night Harry had come to Grimmauld Place and an argument had started between Sirius and Molly about just how much he and the others shoulder know. _

_"He's not a child" Sirius had said, annoyance evident in his voice._

_"He's not an adult either! He's not James, Sirius!"_

_"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly." _

_"I'm not sure you are! Sometimes the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!" _

_At that point Harry had broken in with, "What's wrong with that?" _

Sirius shook his head. When Harry had said that that night, it had made him stop for a split second before continuing with his argument towards Molly. There was definitely something wrong with him treating Harry as James rather than as his godson. Harry had been so happy and probably so starved for a father figure that he hadn't cared or hadn't realized just how Sirius saw him.

Sirius felt his face grow hot as he thought of how right Mrs. Weasley was at the time to be concerned about Sirius as a parent figure in Harry's life. Like Molly, Sirius also had the best intentions when it came to his godson but he'd been so caught up at the time in regaining the life he'd had before Azkaban that he sometimes had started to overlook the fact that Harry was not an exact replica of his James. Sirius was by law a parent-figure to Harry but Mrs. Weasley had been his true caretaker for some time. He'd never forget what she'd said that same night about his godson.

_"I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as someone who has Harry's best interests at heart-"_

_"He's not your son," Sirius had interrupted quietly. _

_"He's as good as!" Mrs. Weasley's voice had taken on a fierce quality that Sirius had rarely heard. _

It had been clear then and was still clear now that in her eyes, Harry had been her son since his first day at Hogwarts, the first time she'd met him. Sirius knew she had to have known even then who he was – after all, she'd known who James and Lily Potter were during the first war.

Tears stung his eyes as he felt a long-overdue outpouring of gratitude for Molly Weasley – Sirius couldn't have asked for a better pseudo-mother for his godson, especially since at the time Harry had had no one else. She'd taken him in basically as one of her own children, and Hermione too, regardless of the risk she knew came with his association with her family, and never once thinking anything of the fame or status he might also bring them. She had made him family for no reason other than realizing that he needed it. And she'd cared for and loved him in a way that Sirius though could have rivaled Lily.

Sighing, Sirius brought his hand over his head, resting his forearm on his forehead as his mind drifted to other events of the night. His thoughts couldn't help but turn to when it came time for everyone to say goodnight. They had stayed several hours and Sirius had actually gotten the opportunity to talk with everyone – quite a change from the last times they had seen him sulking in the corner of Grimmauld Place kitchen.

As everyone had drifted towards the front door to say farewell, Sirius was surprised, which quickly turned to disappointment, to find that Hermione was one of the first ones leaving. Reaching up, she'd wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he'd returned the hug before they exchanged light pecks on each other's cheeks, an exchange which now seemed customary for them.

Molly had apparently been pleased with the interaction, saying, "Well look at this, even Sirius and Hermione are getting along now," which was met with a chorus of "Aww's" and chuckles from the rest of the group gathered now in the front hall.

At that, Hermione and Sirius stepped quickly away from each other as a blush came over Hermione's cheeks. She and Sirius glanced briefly at each other then Hermione shyly smiled at the group while Sirius gave the wolfish grin he'd always been known for at Hogwarts. It froze on his face as he looked around and caught the face of one person who, unlike his mother, didn't seemed pleased at all with what had just happened.

Ron was staring at Hermione with a hard look on his face before apparently realizing Sirius had his eyes on him. His look faltered and he managed a brief smile before stepping forward to wring Sirius's hand and take leave with his girlfriend.

When Sirius looked back at Hermione, he noted that although she wasn't outright smiling, her eyes had a glint to them they hadn't before the kiss and Ron's reaction. Catching Sirius's eye, she smiled before bidding him and the others goodbye and leaving.

In bed, Sirius sighed and brought his hand down over his face. He couldn't help the smile that broke through his fingers thinking of the jealous look on Ron's face and the little spark in Hermione's eyes that told him she wasn't entirely unhappy with what had happened.

Meanwhile, Hermione was lying miles away in her own bed thinking very similar thoughts. She kept seeing Sirius's look of surprise change to what she could only name as disappointment when his eyebrows came together to form a frustrated wrinkle on his forehead. She felt like she was constantly trying not to make a fool of herself in front of Sirius since he returned and had thought it best to leave while the only impression in his mind from that night was probably a vague one, unlike the more recent awkward ones.

But then Mrs. Weasley had gone and made her comment and she'd ended up right back where she had the other times she and Sirius had interacted. One good thing Hermione saw out of the incident was that she got a glimpse of the Sirius she'd heard about from friends and seen in old pictures of him standing self-assuredly alongside his friends and giving what could only be called an arrogant yet somehow charming smile. She had never seen it before in person and she hadn't been able to help smiling in return to the devilish look he'd given. Plus, there was the frustrated look he'd given her. Was it just because he thought her rude to leave so soon or was it something more. She brusquely shook her head, mussing the back of her hair. Sirius, Harry, and everyone else would think she was right barking if they knew what she was thinking.

Sighing, Hermione rolled onto her right side, facing her nightstand where a pile of muggle novels which hadn't been taken to Grimmauld Place sat. She was glad she and Ginny made plans to get together the next day. Hermione chuckled out loud, thinking that the look on Ginny's face when she told Hermione they had a lot to discuss about all this the next day was extremely similar to the look she'd witnessed on Sirius just before leaving. Sighing, she rolled over and tried her best to get to sleep, not knowing that in a town not far from her the handsome black-haired man she was unable to stop thinking about was doing exactly the same thing.

Hermione was awoken the next morning by her best friend's voice calling her name shortly before she apparently launched herself at Hermione's bed, landing directly on top of her.

"Oops, sorry," Ginny said as she righted herself and sat on top of the crimson comforter while Hermione disentangled herself and propped herself up against the headboard. "Good morning!" Ginny chirped brightly once her friend had settled herself.

"'Morning," Hermione replied, yawning. She looked at her redheaded friend, who was in turn watching her. After a few moments of silence Hermione finally took the bait. "What?"

At this, there was a mini-explosion of red hair and almost unintelligible words. "What do you mean, 'What?' – how could you not tell me Sirius was back?" Ginny's voice seemed to have risen in octave in the time she spoke.

Hermione, used to these type of contained blowups, sat undisturbed. The expression on her friend's face told her that Ginny was more excited and curious than she was mad. After a moment of silence she replied. "I couldn't. Besides, it was completely on accident that even I found out. No one was supposed to know but Harry and Kingsley." She added as an afterthought, "And Professor McGonagall since he went to Hogwarts first."

"I just can't get on with the idea that he's actually back. I mean, this was the man I used to fantasize about in between episodes of imagining Harry and me living happily ever after!" Ginny suddenly straightened, arranging her face into a stern, serious look. "But of course, now that I have Harry, I fully intend to fulfill my dream of living happily ever with my prince."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, for those of us who haven't found our prince charming, I guess Sirius is still fair game then," Hermione said teasingly as she stuck her tongue out at her friend. Hermione for one knew that the days of thinking of what Sirius Black looked like underneath his dark shirts were over with, although she couldn't stop the nagging thought of the few moments they'd shared lately, the kisses on the cheek, the slightly intimate tone to their goodbyes.

"I have to admit I'm a little envious and will probably live vicariously through you with the clandestine affair you're bound to have with him," Ginny finished with a dramatic sweep of her hand up to her brow, feigning fainting on the bed. After a moment of lying still, she rebounded, sitting up again and looking at Hermione. "But seriously, have you talked much to him? How is he doing being back?" Ginny's voice took a tone of concern.

Hermione shrugged. "We talked a little bit the night before last when he came to my house," she paused, anticipating her friend's reaction.

"What?" Ginny's shriek echoed slightly off the walls of the bedroom, exactly as Hermione had predicted. Apparently realizing this, she lowered her volume a notch before continuing. "He came to your _house_?" She paused a moment, putting the pieces together. "Wait, the night before last…was that when I went over to Harry's?" she asked, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. At Hermione's answering nod, she asked, "So what happened?" clearing expecting, and most definitely hoping, to hear of some romantic rendezvous.

"Nothing. He flooed over, we talked a bit over some wine, and then he left," Hermione answered tersely, wondering why she felt a bit bothered by how simple it all sounded. When she summed it up like that, it seemed like absolutely nothing but that was definitely not the way it had felt. She looked up to see the redhead watching her.

"Ooh – you broke out the wine and everything!"

"I did not 'break out the wine' – I had already poured myself a glass when he showed up!" Hermione defended herself.

Deciding that was apparently a moot point, Ginny moved on. "So what all did you talk about?" she asked shrewdly but with complete gravity. She felt there was more to the story than Hermione was completely letting on.

"A lot of things actually. He asked a good bit about my life since the war, where I've been working, things of the like," she paused for a moment, unsure of whether to go on. A few seconds later she continued, "I told him about the offer in the Department of Mysteries."

Ginny nodded encouragingly. "That's great, Mione. I never really understood why you wouldn't tell anyone about that."

"Well, you know Ron and Harry – Ron would've considered me a freak for working there and I think Harry just wouldn't have understood the amazing academic possibilities. They both would have written me off as mad out of my mind for even considering it. I think most people would. And your mom…I can't even imagine her reaction. I think you're one of the only people who would be able to see all sides of it, which is why only you know."

"And Sirius now," Ginny concluded with a smile. "So what else did you guys talk about? I'm really hoping you didn't spend the entire time discussing the differences between a kneazle and half-kneazle."

"No," Hermione said, slightly offended. "You know, I'm not exactly the same bookworm I was in Hogwarts. And Sirius isn't the same either – he's more like the Marauder we always heard about from Hogwarts but more mature," she said thoughtfully.

Ginny reached out, putting a hand on Hermione's knee. "I didn't mean it like that Hermione. I know you've changed a lot. And it seems Sirius has too – he didn't seem sulky at all last night, which is definitely different from the summer we spent there."

"And he knew was S.P.E.W. was," Hermione said with a small smile until Ginny burst into laughter.

"Well, Merlin's bollocks, Hermione," she said in between laughs. "I think you've got a keeper there!"

Rolling her eyes again, Hermione couldn't help but join in chuckling.

Once their laughter had abated, Ginny asked the one question Hermione had been hoping she wouldn't. "So did anything _happen_ between you two?" She looked at her friend with eyebrows slightly raised expectantly.

Leave it to Ginny to shrewdly guess that there was something that had happened that Hermione wasn't elaborating on. "It's really nothing," she said. "I'm probably thinking more of it than is warranted anyway."

"Well, tell me what it is and I can tell you whether that's true or not," Ginny replied.

After explaining the first incident of her and Sirius saying goodbye in Grimmauld Place and then the intimate moment at her house, Ginny sat silently for a moment, and Hermione waited quietly to hear her thoughts. Ginny may have her moments when she was giddy and overdramatic, but when it came to advice, Hermione had never found anyone who gave it better.

After a few minutes, Ginny spoke. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but I don't know what to tell you. I mean, we don't really know Sirius now so it's hard to say whether he's just being himself or if there is something more there."

At those last words, Hermione's heart sped a bit before she swallowed hard, forcing herself to calm down. "This is ridiculous, Ginny. I've seen him a total of three times and just because we've had some rather awkward run-ins doesn't mean anything other than I can effective ruin any situation with my self-consciousness. If he knew what we were talking about right now, he'd be laughing and would probably find a good joke of it with Harry and Ron too." Seeing Ginny opening her mouth to interrupt, Hermione quickly went on, "I'm not going to scrutinize this. It's ridiculous and will just incur more embarrassing moments. Sirius is Harry's godfather and I'm sure we'll all be good friends in time – plus, Sirius will definitely go out and probably re-connect with other students from Hogwarts he knew and most likely an old flame or two. Merlin knows from the Daily Prophet that he has more than a few who'd be willing to get back in his favor." She finished with a scowl.

"Really, Hermione, I'd think you better than anyone would know not to trust everything the Prophet says," and it was her turn to speak over her friend as Hermione opened her mouth to argue. "I'd just like to say that I'm a little envious that when I left Grimmauld Place, the only thing I got from Sirius was a nice handshake and friendly pat on the shoulder." She raised her hands in a surrendered gesture. "I won't say another word about it all if you don't want me to though."

Nodding abruptly, Hermione stood up from the bed. "Thank you. Now how about I make us some eggs and then we can go?"

A couple of hours of shopping later and loaded down with many bags, Hermione and Ginny took a seat at one of the outside tables at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Shop. After ordering a cherry dipped cone for Ginny and a raspberry smoothie for Hermione, the girls relaxed against their seats, taking in the busy crowd maneuvering through Diagon Alley. Their drinks came and they lazily perused their many purchases while enjoying their treats.

"I love that green sweater you bought at Twillfit & Tattings!" She fished around for a moment in one of Hermione's bags before pulling it out and holding it up against herself. "Do you think I could borrow it? I promise to return it to you in one piece," Ginny pleaded, ending with a pout.

Hermione shook her head, laughing at the fact that her best friend still felt the need to use the pout even though every time they went shopping, they usually traded at least two of the items they had just bought. "Yeah, go ahead. Where do you want to wear it?"

She tossed the green sweater into one of her own bags. "Harry is taking me out," she said prettily. "And I think Harry will like that color on me."

"I know that I'd like any color on you," a male voice spoke up from beside them.

"Harry!" Ginny immediately jumped up from her seat and hugged her boyfriend over the fence separating the ice cream seating area from the rest of the street. Pulling back from him, she stretched again across the fence, not even hesitating before giving the dark-haired, older man next to Harry a quick hug. "Sirius, it's great to see you again! You guys should come around and join us – we'll work on getting control of all of our bags."

As Harry and Sirius made their way to the entrance, Ginny turned to Hermione, giving her a playful grin before bending down to move their bags off the accompanying chair. Hermione was just moving the last bag when Harry, followed by Sirius, approached the table.

"Hey Mione," Harry greeted, giving her a quick hug before turning back to Ginny and giving her a peck on the forehead.

Looking quickly away – Hermione still couldn't help feeling a little out of place when Harry and Ginny got intimate. In shifting her gaze away, her eyes met Sirius's and they both leaned forward to quickly embrace.

"Hi Sirius," she said cheerfully, hoping to dispel any of the previous awkwardness associated with their last encounters.

"Hello Hermione." She almost shivered as he said her name – was it just her or did his voice sound lower and more gravelly than it normally did? His next sentence effectually killed that thought. "It looks like you girls did a good bit of shopping," he continued, gesturing to the bags.

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, I think we've definitely shopped ourselves out. Now we're just trying to decide what to do with the rest of the evening."

At this, Ginny and Harry turned their attention to the Hermione and Sirius. "I have a great idea! Harry and I had planned on going to the Hogsmeade Harvest Festival tonight. It was before you came back Sirius, but it might be fun for all of us to go. Plus, you'll get to see George and Ron's shop, Sirius!"

At that, Sirius couldn't help but glance quickly at Hermione but upon seeing no reaction there, nodded. "That sounds good to me."

Now all three turned to Hermione, who suddenly felt cornered. Harry was smiling openly at her, obviously wanting his friend to come along. Sirius was also smiling but also seemed to have a more watchful air to his expression. And Ginny was grinning madly, giving Hermione a look that Hermione could only describe as devious. She crumbled.

"Sounds good, let's go."


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Second Chance

Rating: T for now, though this could change

Disclaimer: This chapter contains some excerpts from the books, which belong to J.K. Rowling and are merely being used for accuracy in my story. All characters also belong to the amazing JKR.

A/N: Mello Love, thanks for the review! I'm actually not from the UK but have been trying to get the verbiage at least somewhat convincing…I'm glad to hear it's not too awful haha! And I'm sorry about the grammatical errors – believe it or not, it's a pet peeve of mine but I'm always so excited to upload a new chapter…I need more patience!

Thanks for all the reviews – it's always nice to read them and hear what everyone thinks! And for those of you who have added this story to a favorites or alert list, please feel free to leave a review with any thoughts – as I said, it's always nice for authors to hear directly from the readers!

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"Ginny, this isn't a date!"

Hermione stood in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom with a red dress draped over her body on top of her clothes, another blue one tossed halfway over her shoulder, and yet another being held up to her by her redheaded friend, who was looking at the result with squinted eyes.

"I know, Hermione, but it doesn't hurt to be well dressed for a night out at the Harvest Festival," Ginny said, throwing the blue dress off to the side, where it landed in a crumpled mess on the bed.

Sighing, Hermione walked to the bed and picked it up to hang in the closet. "You mean to be well dressed for a night out with Sirius Black," she said, giving Ginny a knowing look. "In case you have forgotten, Sirius already knows me. And has known me since I was 13." She grabbed a printed skirt from her closet before standing in front of the mirror to hold it up to herself.

"Exactly," Ginny answered, shaking her head before grabbing the skirt from her friend's hands and tossing it in the same place the blue dress had occupied moments before. "He knows 13 year old Hermione. It's time he saw 22 year old Hermione."

It was Hermione's turn to shake her head. She took a step back and removed the various pieces of clothing that had been thrown on. "Listen, I understand you wanting to live vicariously through me, but if you want to impress Sirius Black so much, then you can put on the dresses and primp yourself to attract him. But you might want to let Harry know you're interested in his godfather." She looked at her best friend with a smirk, knowing full well that Ginny didn't have eyes for anyone but her boyfriend.

Ginny rolled her eyes before turning once again to her friend's closet. "Is it still okay if I borrow your sweater?" Hermione nodded, perusing her own closet as Ginny grabbed the green sweater and began to get ready. After getting dressed, putting on their makeup, and finishing their hair, they stood side by side in front of the mirror.

Hermione eyed Ginny's outfit of the green sweater which she had paired with black capri pants. Black strappy high-heeled sandals and a long, bold gold necklace completed her look. Looking down at her own clothes, Hermione couldn't help but feel a little self conscious. She didn't have Ginny's bolder, sexier sense of style and had chosen a simple black blouse paired with a black, pink, and ivory full skirt. She wore wedge heels which she had bought because they were actually comfortable and had put on a long silver necklace. Overall, she thought the look was pretty but not really sexy like Ginny's.

Before she could think much more about it, they heard the whoosh of the fireplace and the voices of Harry and Sirius. Giving her an excited smile in the mirror, Ginny grabbed her arm and they went downstairs.

After apparating to the designated point on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, Sirius, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione joined the crowd filling in the wizarding village. With the different vendors' carts in the streets and the crowd of wizards and witches enjoying the festival, the street was too small for the four of them to fit in a line. Harry and Ginny led the way down the busy road with Sirius and Hermione following behind. Ginny was talking about something she had seen at last year's festival, occasionally looking over her shoulder to include the witch and wizard behind her. Most of her words were lost to Hermione, so rather than try to fill in the blanks of the parts she didn't hear, she looked around at the carts lining the streets. She slowed as they came to a cart filled with dozens upon dozens of beautiful flowers that gave off a faint glow before realizing these were actually the self-illuminating flowers she'd seen other witches get bouquets of at work. She took a moment to look more closely at one before realizing the rest of the group was walking on without her. As she turned to catch up, she almost bumped into Sirius, who narrowly avoided her crashing into him by taking a quick step back.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Hermione said, putting her hand to her mouth.

Sirius smiled back at her. "No problem. When I saw what you had stopped for, I wanted to take a closer look myself." He paused, before glancing back towards Harry and Ginny. "We'd better go though before Ginny notices we've strayed and the lioness comes out." He looked teasingly at her and she returned his smile.

They caught up to their friends just in time as Ginny turned to let them know they were close to Romulus Refection. Hermione saw the restaurant just a few yards ahead and a moment later, they were ushered in and seated at a table by the front window, providing them a good view of Hogsmeade's main road. Hermione took a seat closest to the window while Ginny sat opposite her, next to Harry.

After ordering their meals and receiving their drinks, they discussed where they wanted to go next.

"I think it'd be great to go to George and Ron's shop. It's been ages since Hermione and I have been there, and I really think you'll like it Sirius," Ginny suggested, taking a sip of mead.

Sirius nodded. "That sounds good. I have to say I'm pretty curious to see all the stuff Fred and George cooked up." He paused and looked at Ginny for a moment, trying to determine if talking about Fred was okay. Upon seeing her nod and smile, he continued, "I was amazed with some of the things I saw from them when they stayed at Grimmauld Place. Those extendable ears were amazing!"

Hermione completely agreed. "I thought so too," she said, nodding in agreement. "I was always impressed with the magic they were able to do, even if they broke a thousand school rules in the process. Those firecrackers they set off with Umbridge really were something."

"Definitely something I wish I had been there for. I think Fred and George had us Marauders beat when it came to wreaking havoc at Hogwarts," Sirius said, looking a bit proud to be passing on their title to such worthy protégés.

"Well, George will be glad to hear it," Harry answered. "I think ever since they found the Marauders Map they sort of held you four up on a pedestal."

They all smiled and settled into silence, looking out the window to watch the wizards and witches passing by. Hermione was staring at the bookstore across the street, trying to make out what new book was displayed in the window when Ginny spoke excitedly.

"Look, Mione – there's Draco!" She pointed diagonally across the road, and through the bustle of people, Hermione caught a glimpse of Draco's tell-tale white-blonde hair. She watched for a moment as he bent down to look more closely at an item on the nearest cart before Ginny spoke. "Have you talked to him lately? How is he doing?"

Hermione looked a second more at her former enemy before turning back towards Harry, Sirius, and Ginny. From her side, she could feel Sirius's eyes on her and instead of meeting his gaze, she looked down at her folded napkin and occupied her hands by unfolding it. "Er, it's been a little bit," she said haltingly, her fingers playing with the edges of the cloth.

"And by a little bit do you mean it's been a whole three days since you guys spoke?" Ginny teased. She knew that Ginny had always thought Hermione and Draco would end up together. Even when they were at Hogwarts, while Draco was still a ferrety git, Ginny had teased Hermione that one day Draco would realize the error of his ways and confess his love for Hermione, at which time she would realize just how intelligent he was, a match for her in beauty _and_ brains. And now that Draco _had_ changed so much since Hogwarts and Hermione had actually discovered that he was quite sharp and they had become friends, Ginny was relentless.

Hermione sighed sharply, trying to hold down the blush that she felt rising up her neck to her face. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about in front of Sirius. And she definitely didn't want to get into the specifics on the extent of their friendship.

"No, it's been awhile," she said, staring at Ginny with a hard expression. It was at this point that Sirius finally interrupted, and it was clear he was agitated.

He turned towards Hermione with raised eyebrows. "You're mates with Malfoy?"

Across the table, Ginny snickered into her soda before disguising it as an unconvincing cough. Harry patted her a couple times on the back before answering for Hermione, "Yep, Malfoy is definitely Hermione's mate." She smiled widely at Hermione, clearly pleased with the play on words. Sirius, however, seemed ignorant of the innuendo.

"When did that happen?" he asked before something else seemed to come to mind and he turned to Harry. "Wait, are you friendly with Malfoy too?"

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, but I'd say Hermione and Malfoy are better mates than I am with him." Harry gave her a grin behind his godfather's back as Sirius turned once again to look at Hermione.

He didn't say anymore but seemed to be waiting expectantly for an explanation.

It was Hermione's turn to shrug. "Like all the rest of us, Draco was different after the war." She picked her drink and took a long draw, hoping that would suffice as an explanation. It apparently did not.

"If I remember correctly, that fowl git tried to curse the three of you behind your backs more than once, almost got Hagrid fired, and was so eager to be a Death Eater that he nearly killed Dumbledore, not to mention the others he put in harm's way trying to finish the job, " Sirius said indignantly before grabbing his own butterbeer and taking a lengthy drink. "I guess I just don't understand how you can befriend him with all the things he's done!" he said, almost angrily.

Setting her drink down with a loud thud, Hermione turned to Sirius, a flush rising to her cheeks that wasn't out of embarrassment. "Well, it doesn't matter if you understand, Sirius," she said in clipped tones. "Yes, Draco Malfoy was born to a father who was a Muggle-loathing Death Eater and yes, Draco has definitely had his share of bad moments and misguided actions, but as someone who went through his own friend changing drastically under Voldemort's power and knowing now who Snape turned out to be, I'd think _you_ at the very least would understand that you don't always know your friends or your enemies as well as you might think." Her voice had risen as she spoke and she didn't miss the quick "Mufflatio" that Harry had murmured in the middle of her passionate speech.

She let out another sharp sigh, leaning heavily back into her chair and staring out the window with her arms crossed. She was aware of Ginny and Harry looking at each of them, watching and waiting for the fallout. There was silence for a few minutes before Sirius spoke. "I'm sorry, Hermione. And to you, Harry and Ginny." His voice was low and calm. "It wasn't my place to judge Draco so harshly, especially when he's a friend of yours."

Though he had addressed Harry and Ginny as well, Hermione couldn't help feeling like he was talking to her alone now. "You're right, I do know the effect that Voldemort has on people, so it was unfair of me to judge. Not to mention that when James and I were at Hogwarts, we were probably even worse than Malfoy was, to Snape at least." He sat forward, turned slightly toward Hermione with his forearms resting on the table. "I'm sorry."

Turning her head from the window, Hermione looked to her right to find Sirius intently watching her, waiting for her eyes to meet his. She returned his gaze, staring into his blue eyes. She could see the apology there and a soberness that told her he realized how wrong he had been. It was very different from the look Ron had when he was sorry. His eyes were always pleading, not really thinking of what he had done to deserve reproof or how it had made Hermione feel but just knowing he had done something wrong and needed to fix it. Ron's eyes were always slightly panicky in the midst of an apology, fidgety and wide, whereas Sirius's showed the depth of his regret and were serious and steady in their apology and sadness at having upset Hermione.

She felt her stance soften as her shoulders loosened from their defensive position and she uncrossed her arms. She looked down at her hands, which were now fiddling again with the corner of her napkin. "Thank you," Hermione said softly. "I'm sorry I got angry."

Sirius waved his hand, dismissing her apology. "Nothing to apologize for."

Ginny spoke up then. "And just think. Draco has no idea he was the subject of such an intense conversation. There's no doubt he'd be extremely flattered to know that – you can't deny that his ego hasn't gone down at all since Hogwarts." They all chuckled and watched out the window as the very man they were talking about purchased one of the beautiful flowers Hermione had admired not even half an hour ago and walked away down the street, out of their view.

Still feeling slightly shy at her outburst, Hermione was relatively quiet through the remainder of the meal, letting the others generate most of the conversation. Though she noticed that Sirius was a bit more solemn and Harry and Ginny dominated most of the talk.

After they had finished their meal, which Sirius had insisted paying for, they went outside, joining the throng of people still filling the streets. Ginny gestured for everyone to follow her and went off to the right. A minute later the four of them stood before the store that now belonged to George and Ron.

"Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." Hermione heard Sirius whisper to her left and she looked over at him to see him staring up at the impressive shop in what she could only describe as wonder. "Wow," he breathed. He looked down suddenly to his right at Hermione and grinned. "This is amazing."

She nodded, looking back to the store for a moment before saying, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go in!" Harry led the way, Sirius so eagerly following him that he accidentally stepped on his godfather's shoe, and Ginny and Hermione bringing up the rear. She wrapped her arms around herself, partly to warm herself up and partly to avoid hitting the many people entering and exiting Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. She was glad Sirius had apparently decided not to hold any bad feelings toward her for what she'd said about Draco.

Inside, the shop was crammed with people – wizarding students on weekend from Hogwarts and adults alike. Hermione watched as Sirius's dark head went to and fro, trying to take in as many products at once as he could. She saw the top of his head as he looked up at the ceiling, watching as flying Umbridges – still known as the worst Hogwarts teacher and headmaster ever – swooped back and forth across the store.

Harry led the way up the staircase that wound up through the middle of the store. It wasn't long before he caught sight of the redheaded Weasleys he was looking for. Once George and Ron saw them, they fought their way through their customers to shake Sirius and Harry's hands and give the girls hugs.

As she pulled back from Ron's hug, Hermione got a prickling sensation on her neck. She looked around, glancing over the group of students huddled over a display of portable swamp and two girls giggling by a shelf of love potions. She looked to her left and saw Ginny and Harry laughing with George. Sirius stood beside them but was staring rather unconvincingly at a barrel of pygmy puffs next to him, and Hermione had the nagging feeling that that wasn't where he'd been looking a moment before.

She shook her head quickly, then turned her attention to the rest of the group. "It looks things are going really well, "she half yelled above the din of the crowded shop.

George grinned, "Yeah, we knew that expanding to Hogsmeade would be the best move. Look at these ickle students who can't wait to take the mickey out of each other!" He grinned, looking behind him at a group boys examining containers of U-No-Poo.

George and Ron led them around the shop, explaining to Sirius what some of the products did. He asked a lot about how they got their start and when they had bought out Zonko's to expand to Hogsmeade. Awhile later, they had been through the entire store and it was time for George and Ron to attend their other customers.

"If you stay in Hogsmeade until the festival closes up shop for the night, you might see something rather familiar," George said with a wink before turning to demonstrate the punching telescopes to a group of boys who were nervously examining them. Before they could turn and ask Ron what he meant, the redhead was called away to capture some anti-gravity hats that seemed to have escape.

They spent a few minutes more looking at the rest of the shop before going back outside to take a look at the street vendors. They were turning away from a cart that held an assortment of hair potions when a large group of people suddenly were upon them. Ginny followed Harry through the crowd and just as Hermione was about to be caught among the group, she felt a strong hand grip her left upper arm and another go to her right side, holding her lightly around the waist.

"Let's move over to the right," Sirius's voice said in her left ear, as he steered her to the side of the street between two vendor carts, out of the way of the massive crowd that had just blocked their way. Once there, Hermione turned and Sirius's hand brushed along her back before releasing her completely. She couldn't stop the goosebumps that rose on her arms at the touch.

Looking up into his eyes, she murmured, "Thank you," before turning towards the people fighting their way through the street. "It looks like this is the last minute rush before the festival closes. There's supposed to be some kind of demonstration or display at the end of town, over by the Shrieking Shack I think."

"Oh, that sounds like fun," Sirius said distractedly, and Hermione looked up to see him staring absently out at the crowd that was now starting to thin out. His eyes suddenly came down to meet hers. "Come on, it looks like we'll be able to navigate around now," he said, putting his hand on her lower back and guiding her back out into the street. A couple of seconds later, Ginny was in front of them with Harry close behind.

"I'm glad we found you guys! That crowd was mad! I think the vendors are starting to close up their carts, so lets head down to the Shrieking Shack to watch whatever is happening there." After seeing their answering nods, she turned and led the way to the end of the village. When they got there, there were dozens of witches and wizards spreading out blankets and lawn chairs on the ground.

Taking out his wand, Harry drew up a blanket big enough for all four of them to lay comfortably on as well as pillows to rest their heads. After settling onto the now blanket-covered ground, Hermione looked up at the night sky, which that evening was clear with stars shining brightly in their constellation patterns. In the silence, Hermione shifted her eyes to her left, watching as Harry covered Ginny's hand with his own and kissed her cheek before lying down. To her right, she was incredibly aware of Sirius lying next to her and the heat where their shoulders touched. She felt him take a deep breath and his body relax as he let it out slowly. Careful not to move her head, she moved her eyes down to her right, seeing that his arm rested at his side, close to her body. Her own hands were folded over her stomach, and she couldn't help but imagine what would happen if she moved her own arm to rest straight beside his.

She didn't have any more time to think or act on it as at that moment a witch's voice, aided by the Sonorous charm, broke through the chatter of the waiting crowd.

"Witches and wizards, thank you for coming today to the Hogsmeade Harvest Festival!" she said excitedly only to be answered by equally excited cheers and applause. "We have a very special display for you tonight, generously brought to you by one of our very own Hogsmeade shops. Enjoy!"

Silence came over the people around her and Hermione looked around, wondering just what they were going to be seeing. She jumped as she heard a loud booming sound and without thinking, her arms went to her side in surprise. Her right hand bumped Sirius's left just as the first firework went off. She looked to her right to see Sirius's gaze already on her in the orange glow given off by the firework that had now turned into a giant pumpkin that was dancing animatedly around the sky.

"I'm sor-"

"No, it's okay," Sirius interrupted. He quickly moved his hand to cover hers before she could pull it completely away.

They lay there for what Hermione felt was a long time, their eyes not on the bright display in the sky above them but on each other's faces. Hermione couldn't help her gaze drifting down from his blue eyes to his lips. After a moment of staring at them, his tongue came out to wet his lips, and her eyes moved back up to meet his. He was staring intently at her and she found that although she knew she should look away, she couldn't. Was it her imagination or was his face getting closer to hers?

"Wow – look at that one!" Ginny's loud voice cut through the tension between them, causing Hermione to blink rapidly as if someone had just brought her out of hypnosis. Sirius looked much the same way before turning his face back towards the sky.

"Impressive," he said in a gravelly voice. He cleared his throat. "These are from George and Ron's shop aren't they?"

Ginny nodded and as she and Harry told the story of the fireworks they had set off on Umbridge, Hermione laid silently on the blanket, staring up at the sky as fireworks continued to explode above.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: For anyone out there who might still be reading this, I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter - life got extremely busy.

To the reviewer who said I don't know how to spell pursue – I haven't used the word pursue in my story yet…I have used the word peruse though. You did, however, point out that Sirius did indeed know about Ron leaving during the search for Horcruxes, which I have now corrected in the earlier chapter for anyone reading the story new. Thanks for the catch! (and this is why I don't like writing chapter-by-chapter…I just need to become a full-time writer so I can write my own book all at once and change things along the way :P) I'm on the search for a good beta by the way – it'll be my first time allowing anyone else to read my stories as an editor so I'm excited and nervous to find someone! Once again, thanks to everyone for the reviews and the input!

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After the Hogsmeade Harvest Festival, Hermione made it her goal to avoid Sirius as much as possible. Many times when Harry suggested the four of them get together again, Hermione got out of it, saying work was keeping her much to busy, she had runes to translate, or she had been so busy with those things that she needed a night to herself. On this particular Thursday, Hermione was on her knees in her kitchen, wearing yellow rubber gloves, having just shrugged off a night at Grimmauld Place with Harry, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Sirius.

She knew she was more than capable of charming her house clean, but she wanted the exertion, hoping to keep her mind busy on scrubbing. Her thoughts, however, seemed unable to stop straying to Sirius and what had happened – or almost happened – at the festival.

She blushed and shook her head at the thought, her hair swaying around her face as she stared down at the kitchen floor tiles. _An idiot. That's what I am, and I'm sure that's what Sirius thinks of me, _she thought, zealously rubbing at a red stain. _What was I even thinking?_

She shook her head once more, sitting up and resting her body on her legs. The scene from the fireworks wouldn't stop running through her head. Sirius's grip on her hand. Neither of them watching the fireworks. Sirius moistening his lips.

"Ugh!" Hermione grunted out loud, pulling off her cleaning gloves and covering her face with her hands.

"Did we come at a bad time?"

Hermione's head shot up at hearing someone behind her. Still on her knees, she twisted her upper body to see Ginny behind her looking at her with a smirk and Luna beside her gazing absently around the kitchen. Though Luna had definitely changed some since Hogwarts, the slightly eccentric side of her would always be the same.

Getting up from the floor, Hermione grabbed her gloves and washrag, taking them to the sink. "No, it's fine," she sighed as she wrung them out and hung them over the sink before turning to face her friends. "What are you guys doing here? Can I offer you a drink?"

"No thank you," Luna said, smiling pleasantly.

"I'm good," Ginny said. "We just popped in to say hello and see how you are."

Hermione was surprised. "Me? I'm fine," she waved her hand in a dismissive manner.

"Well, we wanted to check on you after you ended up not coming tonight," Luna said, her eyes now focused solely on Hermione. "It seems you might be overworking yourself if you're as busy as you say you are." She had a slight smile on her face and Hermione didn't miss the gentle allegation in her tone. She thought, not for the first time, that Luna was probably one of the most observant people she knew.

"I just needed a night to myself to unwind a bit."

"By cleaning." Ginny stared dubiously at her friend, clearly a statement rather than a question. At Hermione's answering nod, Ginny crossed the kitchen, grabbed her friend's arm, and gestured for Luna to take her into the living room. Luna and Hermione sat on the couch, and a few minutes later Ginny returned with three glasses of wine. Setting two of them down in front of them, she took a seat in a chair next to the couch.

"Mione, you've got to tell us what's going on. Even Harry is noticing what's going on. You've been avoiding us for two weeks now, ever since the festival. Was it the argument between you and Sirius? Because I can tell you that he is definitely over it."

"No, it wasn't the argument. I just made an idiot of myself in front of him, that's all," she winced at the slightly forlorn tone to her voice. "It's not a huge deal, it's just awkward now. And I don't like to invite awkward situations into my life, believe it or not."

"I think you're wrong." Luna spoke suddenly. Hermione looked at her friend, waiting for her to elaborate. "I think you're wrong about Sirius. I don't think he thinks you're an idiot at all, and when he heard you weren't coming tonight, he seemed genuinely displeased about it."

Beside her, Ginny nodded. "He looked distracted all night."

Hermione looked at her best friend, surprised and wondering what that meant, before shaking her head. "I'm not going to keep overanalyzing everything Sirius does. It doesn't get me anywhere and it's pointless.

Ginny opened her mouth to argue but, seeing the firm set of her friend's shoulders, closed her mouth and the three sat in silence, sipping their wine.

"Our wedding is in less than two months though," Luna said dreamily. "You're my friend and you've known Neville since he was 11, so you have to be there."

Hermione nodded in earnest. "I definitely will be – don't worry about that. I wouldn't miss it! Things will be fine by then and even if they're not, I'm still coming." Hermione paused for a moment, thinking. "You're going to invite Sirius, right?"

Luna nodded. "Yes. He's important to Harry and since he was the person we went into the Ministry for in our fifth year, we thought he should join us. Plus, we thought it might be a nice way for him to meet some more people seeing as how he really only knows some of the Order members."

For the next half hour the girls discussed Luna and Neville's upcoming winter wedding at Hogwarts, to Hermione's great relief. She didn't want to share the humiliating story from the fireworks and couldn't help but wonder, with slight nervousness, when would be the next time she'd see Sirius.

Hermione didn't have to wait long to find out when she got an owl from Mrs. Weasley two days later, inviting her to the Burrow for a "family" dinner the week after. She knew Sirius would be there as Mrs. Weasley wasn't rude enough to leave him out when Harry was invited, and Molly and Sirius appeared to have repaired the rift that had occurred during Harry, Ron, and Hermione's fifth year.

She owled back her reply that she would be there and began training her mind not to let the now-familiar nervous feeling come over whenever she thought of Harry's godfather. It was similar to training herself in Occlumency, but instead of shutting out a Legilimens, she was blocking the panicked sensation that accompanied any thoughts of Sirius. Over the next week she resolved to make Sirius just like any of the other Weasleys or Luna or Neville.

She was so successful that when she knocked on the door of the Burrow the evening of the family dinner, she hardly felt any butterflies in her stomach whatsoever. She waited silently, listening to the chaos of noise that encompassed the lopsided home whenever the Weasleys got together.

It was a moment later that Molly opened the door and immediately enfolded Hermione in a warm hug. This was part of the reason Hermione loved coming to the Burrow – even before her own parents had died, Molly and Arthur had taken her in as a second daughter and this became only truer still once they learned of the deaths of her parents. This hadn't changed when Hermione and Ron had decided to end their relationship. Hugging her tightly back, Hermione breathed in the smell of Molly – a comforting mixture of flour, the scent of fresh laundry, and an airy, natural smell that only the Burrow had.

Releasing her, Molly brought her arm around Hermione's back, as usual commenting on how thin her frame was and insisting that she tuck some food away tonight. Helping her shrug out of her thick over-sweater, Molly ushered Hermione toward the living room, where a game of Exploding Snap was going on. She joined Ginny, who was standing on the edge of the group gathered. Harry, Ron, and George were on the floor playing, while Sirius, Bill, and Fleur sat on the couch opposite where Hermione was standing. Charlie sat in the armchair with Arthur behind him, leaning forward to watch the game play. Hermione spotted Percy sitting at a desk in the corner scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment, pushing his horn-rimmed glasses up on his nose every few seconds. Sparing her just a diminutive glance, Hermione spotted Holly perched on one of the shabbier chairs in the room. She wore a disdainful look on her face as her gaze fell not on the game before her but seemed to hone in on the well-used furniture around the room. It was clear to Hermione that Holly found the Burrow about as inviting as a mud hole. Hermione looked elsewhere before her irritation at Ron's girlfriend turned into actual anger in defense of her redheaded quasi-adopted family.

She had only been standing there a couple of seconds when Arthur looked up from the game and realized Hermione had joined them.

"Hermione!" he said happily, coming from behind Charlie's seat to give her a hug. "Splendid to see you! I know Molly is very happy you could come – we heard you've been working yourself pretty hard the last few weeks." Hermione looked at Mr. Weasley, surprised at his having heard her schedule, and didn't entirely like the knowing look his eyes held.

Upon hearing their father, the rest of the Weasleys greeted Hermione. She waved back and caught Sirius's eye as he joined in the greetings. She smiled quickly at him before turning toward the kitchen to ask Molly what she could help with. Though Molly shushed her and told her there was nothing else needing done, Hermione sat at the table which had been set with an array of various different dishes, silverware, and glassware, chatting with Molly while the red-haired woman waved her wand around, charming the parsley to throw itself into the potatoes while a knife rose into the air and began to carve the turkey.

After talking awhile about Hermione's work and Molly detailing some of the accomplishments of Arthur's office, dinner was ready and everyone settled around the magically-elongated table to eat. Mr. Weasley took his place at the head of the table with Molly to his right. Bill sat to his father's left with Fleur on his other side. Ron took a seat next to Fleur, which earned him a dirty look from Holly on his left, before Percy unceremoniously shoved his chair Fleur and Ron's to discuss the details of Beauxbatons education on wizarding policy with his brother's wife. Hermione smirked as Charlie took the last seat beside Holly, giving a similar dirty look to his brother's girlfriend before turning and smiling at Sirius, who took his seat at the end opposite Arthur. Harry sat next to his godfather with Ginny on his left. Hermione sat next to Molly while George took the last place between his sister and Hermione.

As Molly began charming the dishes to float around the table, pausing at each place setting to allow the person sitting there to take a spoonful, conversation picked up again. Hermione couldn't help but overhear Percy as he expounded to Fleur the benefits of Dolores Umbridge's teaching policy of non-practical learning – a point on which the entire family agreed to disagree with Percy. She heard a sarcastic snort from the end of the table and looked to see both Sirius and Charlie looking at Percy, Sirius wearing an unbelieving look while Charlie's expression was one of amusement mingled with annoyance. She watched as Charlie turned and said something softly to Sirius, at which Sirius chuckled and shook his head.

"A right git he is when he talks about Umbridge like that," George said softly to Hermione's right. "It's a bit like Kreacher talking about Sirius's mum – I bet if Perce had a pair of Umbridge's skivvies, we'd find him in some corner snogging them too."

Hermione laughed into her napkin, not daring to look up to see if Percy had caught on to George's teasing.

"Right, Hermione," George suddenly spoke more loudly from her side. "I completely agree that practical education is indubitably more beneficial." Hermione looked up from her napkin into George's laughing eyes, again not chancing a glance over at Percy, who no doubt could now hear George. He winked before continuing. "I say, I think that ickle wizards and witches should start as soon as they eat their first bangers and mash – what is that, about 3, 4 years old?"

"Indeed, George!" Bill, who had apparently heard George's commentary, chimed in from across the table. He grinned at George and continued, "I'd even get on with putting a wand in a child's hand and letting them suck on that rather than their dummy. Getting a jolt of their own magic right in the mouth might just prove the best teacher!"

At this point, more than half of the occupants of the table were hiding their faces behind their napkins or eating utensils, while the muffled sound of laughter grew louder. Hermione glanced up just in time to catch Mrs. Weasley attempting to straighten her face into what looked like a stern look – however unsuccessful – before nudging her husband in the ribs with her elbow. At that, Mr. Weasley also attempted to arrange his face into a disapproving expression.

"Now boys, that's quite enough," he said, pausing a moment to look down at his plate, his features seeming to struggle to hold their tight expression. "Let's have a nice dinner."

The rest of the meal went by without any further teasing of Percy and before long, they were all sitting back in their chairs, full to the brim of food. Mrs. Weasley levitated the plates and silverware over to the sink, where the water turned on, the sink filled with soap bubbles, and a charmed scrubber started to work washing the dishes. Bill and Charlie assisted in clearing the food and everyone dispersed again to their activities. Another game of exploding snap started between Bill and Charlie while Harry and Ron played wizards chess a few feet away. Hermione stood by Ginny behind the couch, and soon Fleur joined them. Hermione knew what was coming when Fleur bent her head conspiratorially toward the two girls. The part-Veela always seemed to know the latest gossip and had an apparent uncontrollable urge to share it with her and Ginny.

"You vill never guess who sent Ron an owl yesterday!" Fleur's voice was hushed and she glanced over at Ron. He still wasn't fond of hearing his ex-girlfriend's name and the embarrassment that accompanied.

"Merlin – not Lav-Lav!" Ginny laughed. She couldn't help but take the opportunity to make fun of her brother's ex.

Nodding, Fleur continued, "Yes, and apparently Holly was not feeling pleased about it, so she sent a return owl to Lavender asking if there vas anything _she_ could help Ms. Brown vith."

Not fond of hearing about either Lavender Brown, who Hermione couldn't help but think of with some accompanying bitterness, or Ron's current girlfriend, she tuned her two friends out and absently watched the cards on the floor explode before Bill and Charlie gathered them up to begin again.

Not bothering to interrupt Ginny and Fleur's analysis on what the note from his ex-girlfriend meant for Ron and his current's girlfriend's relationship, Hermione turned away from the group gathered in the living room, grabbed her sweater from the rack by the door, and made her way over to the door. Quietly closing the door behind her, Hermione put on her sweater while she walked towards the old garden shed on the edge of the Weasley acreage. The night air was cool but not cold as she sat on the stone steps leading up to the door of the shed. Leaning back, she rested her head and upper back against the worn wood, listening to the sounds from the Burrow drift out to her. This was one of her favorite places to go. From where she sat, she had full view of the Burrow in its entirety, its crooked tiers leading high into the evening sky. It was sometimes nice to sit on the outside of the bustle going on inside and see the one-of-a-kind building filled with her family and friends. The lights from the windows gave off a pleasant glow, while the sounds of exploding snap and conversation disappeared from her ears to be replaced by the soft wind through the grass and the occasional grunt of a gnome as it dug for worms. Tilting her head back and closing her eyes, Hermione listened to the muted sounds of the evening before the stillness was broken by the sound of Burrow's door opening. Bringing her head back down, Hermione saw a distinctly male silhouette filling the doorway.

"Hermione?"

Upon hearing her friend's voice, Hermione let out a breath she didn't realized she'd been holding. "Hi Harry," she said, scooting over as Harry walked across the dark yard to where she sat. He took a seat, shifting side to side before reaching to pull his wand from the side of his jeans. He turned it over in his fingers for a moment before swishing it lightly through the air. Hermione smiled at the blue flames contained in a jar that now sat in Harry's other hand.

He glanced over at her and smiled back. "I finally mastered your blue flames, although mine still aren't quite as good."

Pulling her own wand from her jeans she replied, "You can have the blue flames, but these will always be mine," and with a swish and flick, a flock of small yellow birds emerged from Hermione's wand with a bang that echoed in the still yard. Harry and Hermione sat still for a moment, Hermione's wand motionless in the air, leaving the small birds fluttering up and down in the same spot. After a waiting a moment to see if the noise had alerted anyone in the house, they relaxed back into the door of the shed, Harry holding his flames and Hermione magically navigating the birds between them and around the yard.

As everyone dispersed from the dinner table after Molly's filling meal, Sirius followed the group comprised of mostly redheads to the living room, where immediately everyone broke into sub-groups of Exploding Snap players, chess players, game-watchers, and conversationalists – Sirius still heard Percy trying to engage someone in a discussion about the Ministry's educational policies. Sirius couldn't help but keep half his gaze on the trio of girls by the couch, who were evidently engaged in interesting conversation. Wandering over to where Ron and Harry were playing wizard's chess, he watched for a few moments before catching a movement to his right. Looking over, he just saw the Hermione reach up to grab a sweater from the coat rack before disappearing outside, quietly closing the door behind her. Looking back towards the game, he saw Harry also watching the door before his godson's gaze turned to Sirius, then back to the chessboard, where Ron's queen had just finished delivering a rather rude gesture to Harry's knight and checked the king.

"Well, mate, I think I'm about done getting my arse beat about," Harry said, standing. "Maybe Sirius wouldn't mind taking the next round. I think I'm going to get some air." Bidding Ron and Sirius goodbye, Harry followed the same path Hermione had taken a minute before. Sirius watched out the window as Harry's dark form made it was across the yard to where Hermione sat on the steps of an old shed. A few moments later a small blue light erupted, illuminating Harry and Hermione.

"Ronnie," the slightly nasally voice of Holly interrupted Sirius's gaze. He moved aside as Holly approached Ron, who looked up at his girlfriend. "Are we leaving soon?" Her overly red lips were pulled back in a kind of snarl that left Sirius not at all envious of Ron. Nodding with an expression that clearly showed Ron understood his girlfriend was not asking to leave but rather telling, he stood from his seat and the couple began saying their goodbyes. Just before pulling out their wands and preparing to disapparate, Harry came in from outside. Harry shook Ron's hand and said goodbye to Holly before the pair turned on the spot and with a crack disappeared.

Turning to look once again out the window, Sirius saw Hermione still seated on the steps of the shed, the flames casting a faint blue glow on her face. He paused only a moment before grabbing his own coat off the rack and heading outside.

When Hermione saw the Burrow door open a second time, she knew she wouldn't be as lucky as the first time. She didn't even have to see his face to know it was Sirius. The way he walked, his hair ruffling a bit as he strode across the lawn, told her it was him. She knew why he was coming to join her and strangely enough, didn't feel the panic she had been the last few weeks since he'd been back.

"Hello, Hermione," Sirius said in a voice softer than she was expecting. "May I sit down?" he asked and stood quietly, genuinely waiting for the okay from her before taking a seat. She nodded and scooted over a bit on the step. Murmuring a return thanks, he took the offered space. There was silence between the two for several minutes as Hermione stared into the flames contained with the jar in her hands and Sirius looked up at the sky, easily finding the bright star that was his namesake. It was a comfortable silence and Hermione was disappointed when Sirius ended it.

Turning his eyes from the constellations above, he looked at his hands now resting on his knees. "Hermione, I'm sorry if I've been acting strangely of late," he paused, unsure how to continue. "I think that-" before he continue, Hermione held up her left hand, interrupting him.

"Sirius, it's okay. I know things must be sort of a mess for you right now, and there's going to be an adjustment period for getting back into the swing of things." Hermione glanced up at his face quickly before returning her gaze to the flames. "Plus, everything's so different now from before you went into the veil."

Sirius exhaled sharply. "That it is," he said in a thoughtful voice and Hermione couldn't help but wonder what things he was thinking were so different and whether they were similar to her own. They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few minutes before the Burrow door opened once again and Molly's voice called out to them to come in before Bill and Fleur left.

Sirius rose and turned to offer Hermione a hand up. Vanishing the flames and tucking her wand into her jeans, she took the offered hand and stood. She let go as she got her balance and turned with a smile toward him. He smiled and murmured a soft "Thanks, Hermione," before they both turned and made their way back to the group gathered in the house.


End file.
